Guest Post by Kurt Schlichter
Old habits die hard, and now it’s time for the GOP’s habitual support of big business to die, and to die hard.
Look around – the corporations have decided it’s a great time to use their power against us. There used to be a kind of gentleman’s agreement – they stay out of our business and we stay out of theirs. But they broke that agreement. They decided to go all in. And it’s no coincidence that the political positions they have taken conform exactly to those of the Democrat Party. So, the hell with them.
This change has been coming for a while. We need to understand the nature of the old Republican/big business relationship to see what happened. The companies were never with us culturally – they wanted fewer regs, lower taxes, open borders, and docile workers. They didn’t care about social issues. They stayed out of it. But a few decades ago, when those icky evangelicals and others who actually worshipped something besides the almighty dollar showed up, the corporate types got restless. After all, it made for awkward convos at the country club when you were allied with the Jesus gun people from out there in Americaland. So, today, they have intervened in favor of our enemies, but they expect us to sit back and pretend it’s 1987.
Why did they go with the liberal establishment? Because that’s who the multinational bigwigs are, and always have been. It’s always about class, and the class these robber barons circulated within looks down on regular Americans. Hence the current virtue signaling, where you have airlines and shaving cream companies telling us we’re racist. It’s all about the execs making sure everyone knows whose side they are on, so the message to their brethren and sisteren and otherkin is, “Hey, we’re not like those people. Not at all.”
But what’s hilarious is how they still expect us to go to bat for them against the left, just like before. It doesn’t work that way. Relationships are about give and take, and we’ve given our support to the big companies when it comes to taxes, regulations, and the like. But what have we taken? A lot of crap from woke jerks.
It’s not even just the lectures about how we are all the -ists and all the -phobes. The corporations have fought for open borders. They have sent our jobs overseas and killed small businesses at home by leveraging the government to favor the Walmarts and Costcos over the mom and pops. Why do you think your little shop (not to mention your church) had to close because of Covid, but the big boxes were wide open and packed?
They are not our friends. They are not even our allies. They are the enemy, and until now they have successfully used the GOP as their defense against the Democrats even as they clink Chardonnay glasses with the libs on Park Avenue.
Time to rethink our coalition.
Time to think about our coalition without the huge anchor of the big corporations weighing us down.
And they do weigh us down. It’s not just that we get a big, fat nothing from our relationship. It’s that we end up buying all their corporate depredations. How many times have we had to take the hit for the damage the giant companies have done? The Democrats use it to pummel us every election cycle, alienating natural allies of every race and ethnicity in return for…what?
What, exactly, do we get out of the big companies?
Donations? Take a look at the numbers, because those fat checks are heading left. Big business not only funds the Democrats. It funds their commie outside agitators, like BLM. Even the Chamber of Commerce went full on liberal last time, firing the last Republicans left on its staff.
Oh, now the Chamber of Communism is making little whiny noises about the huge taxes the Democrats are planning. And big business is going to turn to us to once again help it stop the bloodbath.
It needs to be greeted with a middle finger.
They want to play politics? Well, dudes, here’s politics. Good and hard.
Raise the corporate rates, but only for companies of over $250 million.
Tax them on worldwide income, not US net, to ensure they can’t off-shore their gains or pay zero taxes.
Don’t raise the minimum wage though – big companies will absorb that and laugh as little companies die. Small business will be starved of workers. Instead, stop the Walmarts and the rest of the big companies from sticking us taxpayers with the living wage bill by directly taxing the ones grossing over $250 million in income per each employee to pay for the Section 8, Medicare, and food stamps their workers need and that Uncle Sucker provides.
And end all the sweetheart tax breaks. Bye-bye carried interest deduction – guess you hedge fund creeps shouldn’t have carried so much water for the Dems.
We know the upside of breaking up with big business – we get more tax money, we lose the corporate stooge albatross, and we punish our enemies. But what’s the downside? People who treat us like garbage don’t get us doing their dirty work? Not much of a downside.
Now, this is where the “principles” thing comes up. Apparently, some alleged principle out there requires us, as true conservatives, to be corporate shills with no ROI for all eternity. We could do that, or we could not get shafted by ingrates who hate us.
I like the principle of not getting shafted by ingrates who hate us better.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again: There is no valid conservative principle that requires you to be less free. But trashing our rights is what woke corporations using their power against us as Democrat catspaws do. It’s unclear why they are morally free to exercise their political will indirectly as liberal cut-outs, yet we can’t exercise ours directly through our elected officials.
But, the Fredocons will whine, what about the corporations’ rights?
Well, here’s my deal, take it or leave it, no negotiation, final, best offer: I will care about their property rights exactly as much as they care about our civil rights. And that should scare the hell out of them.
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indeed the very concept of a magic one-way liability that characterizes corporations since the mid-19th century or so (at least in the us) is one of those highly concentrated fountains of evil in our world. it’s the closest thing to maxwell’s demon ever actually constructed (the walls of that pressure chamber are as strong as the armed force of the state is to enforce the claims or rebuff the victims of those corporations).
a partnership (or ‘company’ in the older sense) of individuals who combine resources for some enterprise , where those partners are thus jointly liable for actions of their partnership if they cause offense or damage or break a law, and for debts owed by their partnership, that is something which is the private business of those partners between them- they are still responsible for their actions and their debts. a corporation, though, is a magical black hole where all liability vanishes and all profit zips out into an unreachable alternate universe.
It is one of the fundamental building blocks of the modern age tyranny.
yes, corporations need to go, entirely. the _whole legal concept of a corporation needs to go_. Persons are human beings and nothing else. Persons might act jointly but always remain responsible as persons for those actions.
The initial premise of the wholesale clubs was to serve small business. I was one of the first members of BJ’S Wholesale club. Then later when Costco came to my area I joined them too. Then Sam’s. Over time they got big employers like utility companies and governments to buy memberships for their employees. Then they opened membership to the public.
So while at one time us small business owners had a few perks like special hours I guess eventually they decided they didn’t need us anymore.
It was routine for me to visit Costco twice a week and drop $500. And I personally know at least ~100 of my peers who were doing the same.
Costco was never any good for my business. They didn’t open until 10 am or later, had no cash on hand to sell me a few hundred in small bills for making change, etc. Sam’s was better with the 7 am opening time for business members only, plenty of small bills when I needed them on Saturday morning with my banks closed, and plenty of items that were aimed strictly at small business.
Neither is worth a shit nowadays, but at least Sam’s allows unmasked people inside while libtard Costco doesn’t. Both corporations decided that 1000 purchases by individual members was better than 100 $1000 purchases by business members, because small business is viewed as the enemy of corporations.
I still have my Sam’s business member card, issued in 1992, but my membership is now a “Plus” membership. Things change.
I regularly shopped 3 wholesale clubs over the course of about 25 years. In addition there was Restaurant depot and a few commissaries. Generally, if a same or similar item was available at 2 or more clubs the lesser quality one was at Sam’s.
They would usually only carry one brand of many products. So I could depend on Costco to have my preferred brand of Tomato sauce, for example. That is, until the day I had an urgent need for 6 cases of #10 cans only to discover the buyer thought it a good idea to now only carry the least desirable brand.
Corporations are liable and can be sued. It happens all the time, unless the government has granted them some sort of immunity, or they can arrange a plan approved by the government to minimize their liability.
I’m having a hard time envisioning how Caterpillar or John Deere would operate as partnerships, or get to there from being corporations.
It sounds like you are seeking the immediate destruction of capitalism.
Read the important bits again. Yes, you can sue a corporation. what does that mean? The shareholders are isolated from that liability. That is exactly the magic of corporations and exactly the problem with them. The shareholders must be accountable as partners. The liability must be fully borne by the shareholders.
The fact that corporations as we know them today allow profits to be withdrawn but liability stops at the door, is exactly the problem with them. Without that magic protection, a corporation would be merely a partnership .
Capitalism has nothing to do with corporations, and indeed you might find if you think about it some more, that corporations are in fact one of the enemies of a truly free market. They are a monstrosity propped up by the force of governments (who else breathes life into a corporate charter but the state, who else enforces its ‘rights’ but the state?) that allow some people to cheat at what would otherwise be a free market. They are what allows grotesquely unbalanced relationships to develop that negate any freedom in that market.
capitalism is merely the realistic observation of how investment, capital, production, and profit are related. it might well be called ‘industrialization’ flat out. The USSR was a capitalist empire every bit as much as the USA was during the same era- the difference was that the USSR was wholly and entirely owned by a single entity – the soviet state. If jeff bezos or bill gates or goldman sachs were to buy up the entire US and run it as a ‘company town’ , that would still be capitalist, right? it would also be the spitting image of the ussr.
Capitalism is what people do when the have economic freedom, but, it’s not shareholders of corporations who make decisions for the corporation. Shareholders at best get to elect board members from a pre-selected slate of candidates. Then the board members appoint/hire corporate officers.
Holding shareholders liable for corporate malfeasance or lawbreaking would be absurdly unjust- it’s the corporate officers who make such decisions and corporate officers are liable for criminal activity they engage in.
Shareholders do stand to lose because malfeasance and illegal corporate activity tend to drive down the value of shares.
BTW, claiming that the Soviet Union was a corporation might be sort of plausible, but claiming that the USSR was “capitalist” is nonsense. Even a claim that they weer a “corporation” is absurd.
People invest in actual corporations only if they want to, and they can sell their shares any time they want to. Economic liberty is fundamental to capitalism.
Certainly some corporations are hugely profitable for a time, but very few last, and most come and go in a fairly short time. Obviously, if there was some inherent “magic” protection provided to corporations by government, all corporations would be hugely profitable and never go out of business.
The bar is set so high for criminal prosecution that for all intent and purpose it does not exist. Show me one single corporate officer that has ever gone to prison for harming or killing a person by marketing an known defective product. Just one…. I mean the pharmaceutical industry alone has knowing killed thousands of people.
Do you exempt Doctors who prescribe the drugs that cause the deaths?
Their “capitalism” is the People’s slavery…no voice, but only allowed to exist to be harvested as a commodity.
Corporations are evil entities. While they can be sued for”civil” damage, they are nearly 100% immune from criminal prosecution. That is why the board of Ford Motor Company can make the conscious decision to allow hundreds of people to burn to death in their vehicles rather than fix a problem in production.
Corporations are a socialist construct and do nothing but harm America.
yes! this!
That tiny town is Hallstatt in Austria … less than an hour from Salzburg. It boasts the oldest salt mine in the world. The beauty of that village is astonishing to behold … especially in the winter, when it is truly transformed into a Fairy Tale Winter Wonderland.
Five things you must know about Corporations;
1) Corporations have no soul. Souls belong to living creatures.
2) Corporations have no loyalty to ANYTHING at any place or at any time … other than THEMSELVES.
3) Corporations sole purpose on earth is to make money. They love it, they worship it, it is their God.
4) The love of money is the root of all evil.
5) Therefore, Corporations are Evil.
Corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders. They exist to make money for their shareholders. Hopefully, Delta Airlines stock will take a big hit, and shareholders of Delta will sue them.
I guess what you meant to say was that anyone who owns stock is evil.
well, anyone who owns stock shares responsibility for the actions of the corporation he’s a sharedholder in. The fact that the government shields the shareholders from the liability does not absolve them of it morally.. it only shows up how monstrous is the whole construction. Corporations minus the liability shield are merely partnerships- a perfectly acceptable method of organizing joint efforts in enterprise for people who are interested in behaving like responsible humans.
I used to own stock in DuPont. Does that mean I had some moral responsibility and should feel guilt, or should have sold my stock because DuPont made gunpowder?
I assume you also think that limited liability corporations are a monstrous evil?
Again, if corporate officers break the law, they are personally liable.
You argue that, if the corporate officers of DuPont knowingly and intentionally had their company manufacture and sell defective gunpowder while I was a stockholder, I should have been held liable for any damage that resulted. That’s just completely unjust nonsense. That sort of idiocy would destroy our economy. No sane person would invest in any business.
Let me ask you, has such a scheme as shareholder liability for corporate actions ever been tried?
i dont think dupont has killed many people with their gunpowder (those who buy it are acting on their own account, please lets not confuse that issue) but you as a shareholder certainly bear some complicity and responsibility for dupont’s massive contamination of the groundwater and the river around the parkersburg plant that produced pfoa/teflon for decades… one example among many. curious you chose perhaps deliberately the most idiotic example to try to deflect the argument.
No. Being a Dupont shareholder does not make me either complicit in or liable for that company’s polluting the groundwater in Ohio and W. Virginia.
You’re talking about this right?
https://www.ewg.org/research/dupont-hid-teflon-pollution-decades
You expect that, as a stockholder, I would have knowledge of this, when the local water authorities who were directly responsible for the safety of the communities drinking water, did not.
BTW, the finding that 2 out of seven employees giving birth to children with birth defects is statistically insignificant. The sample is far too small.
Anyway, the specific Dupont officials who withheld the knowledge, who did not inform the water authority of the potential harm should have been held liable.
The 3M officials who knew of the problem could also have been held liable for not informing the EPA of the potential harm . Where was the EPA in all of this? In bed with 3M and Dupont? Did no EPA employees or officials have responsibility for monitoring discharge of chemicals into groundwater?
Here’s a link to the MSDS for C8 from 2018-
https://www.caymanchem.com/msdss/62540m.pdf
I don’t see anything about possible birth defects…
Mostly correct. I’m not sure if owning stock in a small independent company that makes Gummy Worms makes one evil.
It’s like this. Criminal law recognizes something called “accessory to murder”. This occurs with a perpetrator helps or assists a murderer before or after the commission of the murder. In other words, you don’t actually have to pull the trigger to be found guilty of murder.
So, if you own stock in a company which is dedicated to destroying your ability to enjoy Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit Of Happiness — like, Google — then, hell yes(!!), you are just as guilty as Google itself … and “shareholders” and their clamoring for “fiduciary responsibility” can just go fuck themselves.
I guess you just hate economic liberty and want to send the U.S. economy back to pre-industrial days.
BTW, here’s an important part of the legal definition of “accessory-
“In Criminal Law, contributing to or aiding in the commission of a crime. One who, without being present at the commission of an offense, becomes guilty of such offense, not as a chief actor, but as a participant, as by command, advice, instigation, or concealment; either before or after the fact or commission. Emphasis added.
Stockholders don’t meet that definition.
Here’s a pretty good concise description of corporations and the things unique to them that make large businesses feasible.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/corporation
No. I hate you.
Stock is ownership. If you own part of a company you are a participant in it. Your money enables their malfeasance. You are guilty. So, stick your copy&paste crap up your arse.
I could be right on 99% on anything and everything by simply taking the opposite stance you take. Yeah, you’re that clueless.
Stuck, thanks for letting me know-
“No. I hate you.”
My money enables their malfeasance? You can’t be serious.
Let me tell you about the corporation I’m most familiar with.
It was created in the late 1950s when a group of men went together and acquired 100 acres of private land in the middle of a State forest. The property came with a barn and outhouse, circa 1900, a pond 1 1/2 acres in size, and two really good limestone springs that have never gone dry, not even in modern times when lots of women went to camp on a regular basis and took lots of long showers. it came with a yard of sorts, a field that used to grow onions. This has been expanded into meadows and orchards of apples and chestnuts and some kind of inedible cherries.
There was also a two story bunkhouse, also circa 1900, with a pot bellied stove and no kitchen.
There was a nice usable spring house over the spring closest to camp.
There is one small run that passes through the property. It supports small native trout. Their is a larger run that comprises one border of camp property. Beavers like it, and it supports a lot of larger trout, not all of them native. Wild turkeys are common.
It was incorporated from the beginning. Each member owned one share.
It still exists today, but only because it was incorporated. There are currently 30 members, and it is now more of a weekend resort than a hunting camp.
All of the original shareholders have died (there is no hereditary right to a share as there is in a partnership or sole proprietorship) but it’s still a great place to go for a weekend in the mountains. Lot’s of fish in the pond, enough deer to make it worth hunting them if you want to… Not many do anymore. The chance of seeing elk, or hearing the bulls bugle, is pretty good.
Kids and dogs tend to love it.
Back to my point, what if it had been created as a partnership? The chances are, after long legal battles draining all the assets from the camp, one person would have gained ownership. That would have been a real shame.
Because it was created as a corporation, it might just exist forever, ever changing, re-creating itself according to the wishes of the shareholders.
I didn’t say ALL corporations are evil. I made an exception for my fictional Gummy Worm corp … I’ll make one for your idealistic paradise one as well.
Nevertheless, if you can’t see the tremendous damage these huge traitorous mega-Corps have done, are doing, and will continue to do to this country — well, I have nothing more to say to you.
If Babylon The Whore was incorporated you would defend that also. How pathetic is that?!!
Stuck,
I spoke of a reality, created as an agreement between adults about how to use property they bought in common. It’s worked pretty well for a long time now.
It’s the basis of all corporations.
Corporations that don’t have large numbers of shareholders don’t need a board of directors, and don’t need to hire corporate officers, but the essentials of all corporate agreements are very similar.
If you’ll be specific about the damage done and the “huge mega-Corps” that have done it, I’ll try to answer.
What exactly do you mean by “if Babylon the Whore was incorporated”?
I’m at a complete loss to make any sense at all of that statement.
Are you talking about an individual, or a city?
If you don’t like what the Whore is doing, sell your shares. If the Whore is doing something illegal, report it/her.
Please be more specific than just saying something like “if you don’t know that “huge mega-Corps” are breaking the law all the time, you must be pathetic. Thanks.
U. How very pastoral! Yet not very representative of the corporations we all know.
Gosh, so where do Monsanto and Bayer and IG Farben fit into the corporation as goodness narrative? Mark Zuckerberg invested over 4oo million to sway the vote to Biden, Mark Zuckerberg owns Facebook and sells stock of Facebook on Wall street. Now Zuckerberg is an evil little shite, he’s worth billions and uses that money to control elections and the country but somehow, being a stockholder of Facebook shares is A-ok because…?
The corporate structure is beneficial to almost everything. It is essential to modern economic life and prosperity.
Buying Facebook stock is not evil in itself. Neither is trying to influence elections. Half the country probably applauds what Zukerberg is doing.
Are they al also “evil shites”?
Do you really think Zuck was controlling the election?
Disclaimer: I signed up on Facebook years ago, thought it sucked, and didn’t go back.
I’m not familiar enough with Monsanto and Bayer and IG Farben to have an opinion.
Are they “evil shites” now? Have they always been “evil shites”?
Did they never do anything good?
Can you be specific, about the corporations we al supposedly “know”, and what they have done that you don’t like. Thanks.
BTW, at times,(for instance kid weekend, or the first day of deer season, or golf weekend) the camp is not exactly pastoral. You can escape into the woods.
-Not taking sides here, Underwood, but paying for stock that allows a company to commit an offense(e.g. certain big tech censoring conservative discourse) and doing it(paying for stock)knowingly, would at the least be indirectly participating in the offense..HOWEVER, UNknowingly buying stock under the assumption the company is on the up and up, while they secretly do underhanded things, would seem to keep the stockholders innocent..?
Panther,
A criminal offense?
Are we talking about buying shares in Murder, Inc.?
What about donating money to Greenpeace, or the SPCA? Planned Parenthood? Or any number of recognized”charitable” organizations?
Certainly, from a legal standpoint, knowledge of the intent of the people you support is essential to a finding of aiding and abetting, being an accomplice.
Censoring “conservative” discourse is something any publisher has every right to do, except for the federal “fairness” doctrine, which never bothered to worry that libertarian discourse was almost always “censored”.
Should a Christian Blog be forced to carry hateful posts from Satanists?
No.
Should a blog with intelligent people like TBP be forced to listen to Dumbfuks like you?
Again, no.
And yet, you keep reading my posts and replying with insults…
I really don’t want to intervene in the lovely back and forth you are having with our latest contributor, but I have to wonder what you have against Gummy Worms.
Continue.
Not speaking for Stucky but…gummy worms are vile and toxic and they rot your teeth. Outside of that, they’re not too bad.
your accessory to murder analogy then has to be applied to the traders on Reddit too who would have to be little evil bastards by screwing the big greedy evil hedge funds out of billions
Your law analogy is RETARDED F.Lee Bailey
I don’t understand..
Are you talking about murder or fraud? Both are illegal of course, as is being an accessory to either.
Government power is the mechanism by which corporations spread their evil. Without it, they would be forced to keep their customers happy.
You’re serious aren’t you? LOL
Underwood, let me ask you a question. If you give aid and cover to a mass murderer are you an accessory to mass murder?
You insult me by asking that question.
Stuck, Logically stated with an economy of words. People must know this before they can have an inkling about what to do about it. Or do we just keep feeding the zombie dogs that bite us?
Well, Daddy Joe, it is obvious that the overwhelming masses will continue to feed the zombie dogs. Feeding = buying their shit. There is only one way to kill these particular zombies — stop buying their shit!!
I do my part;
— avoiding at every possible opportunity shopping at Big Box stores … I make a concerted effort to buy from mom&pop stores even if it means it costs me more money.
— when I do shop at a Big Box (at this point it is ONLY Home Depot and sometimes Walmart) I make damned sure I am not buying Chinese Shit. Ever. I will go without before buying Chinese shit.
— I will never buy a new car again in my lifetime
— I refuse to succumb to the religion of Need & Greed … those assholes trying to convince me I NEED (!!!) the latest fashion, the coolest gadget, or what-the-fuck-ever. I revel in becoming a Minimalist … fuck you very much, I’ll wear my jeans until the thread shows through!!
I am not bragging or virtue signaling. This is what my life is now, and I like it. If millions of people aspired to even a portion of living like this those fucking Zombie Dogs would be dead before the next full moon!
I have become very aware of who is making the items I buy. Like you, we are able to pay more for higher quality.
We are fortunate to be between Amish and Mennonite communities, with local folklorists still very much in place.
Not everyone is so lucky and has to modify their purchasing behavior as they can. If you watched the video about seeds posted by HSF the other day, you must realize controlling food supply through registration is high on the list.
We fought the King just as much as we fought his corporations.
Watch “The Corporation”. Enlightening.
https://youtu.be/zpQYsk-8dWg
Does the red background mean it was produced by some bureau of the communist party?
What the founders of America wanted to eliminate were government chartered monopoly corporations, things like the East India Company, granted a monopoly by the King.
That our governments want to revert to such a mercantile system is something that must be stopped, but it’s not an indictment of corporations in general.
Watching now. Will give it a rating later…
Have you seen this?
Is this “short” film as disturbing to you as it is to me?
Interesting vid, Mags. Life is boring as hell until you get laid. Yeah, that’s kind of disturbing.
Go read Confessions of an Economic Hitman for more elucidation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man
I just scanned the link. Now, I’m hooked. Have you got a better link?
A certain few large corporations are guided by CEOs and boards who seek to benefit from their relationships with government. It used to be called a mercantile system, but lately is referred to as “cronyism”.
It is a system that can’t exist unless the government grants favors to corporations; the Bad Guy in the relationship is government, not corporations.
If there was no benefit to be had from lobbying government for favors, no one would lobby for favors. If there was no perceived benefit in following the government’s lead and becoming “woke”, no corporation would do it.
Raising corporate tax rates will send more corporations overseas, even corporations who aren’t playing the “woke” game, or subsisting on government handouts.
Here’s a pertinent link-
https://www.cato.org/blog/janet-yellen-wrong-tax-competition
My recommendation is, where you can, don’t buy products or use the services of “woke” corporations, but don’t seek to punish all corporations for the misdeeds of a few cronies.
Too much government doing too many things that our government is not authorized to do is the real problem.
“A certain few…” Please tell me one large one that ISN’T. Everything else about your argument is rock solid. But I contend that there is not a corporation in America larger than say $20,000,000 in sales per year, that is not in bed with government in one way or another (purposely that is – one should always take advantage of tax breaks, etc. if they are there…but that is not the same as demanding them, etc.).
It’s a sad fact that our governments are playing patronage games with business in general, and that the bureaucratic state has the power to destroy any business on a whim.
Lobbying to try to keep your business alive is something that shouldn’t have to be done, but it seems to be necessary in today’s version of “free enterprise”.
Asking for the same special privileges that other business get isn’t somehow reprehensible.
Our governments are responsible for this, not businesses in general.
There is this tale about the people on a small island who exist by doing each other’s laundry. Then there is the tale about the traveling twenty dollar bill. Eventually those corporations will run out of customers and then what will they do? The wide world is rather small when the clients are broke.
When corporations buy politicians and lobbyists are the real power brokers, you can’t expect thriving economies and even those ‘non woke’ corporations will suffer as the corporatocracy grows ever more powerful.
The United States is a corporation and if you don’t grasp what all that entails then you aren’t paying attention.
Business, incorporated or not, who don’ t provide something people want at a price people are willing to pay go out of business, unless the government subsidizes them.
Politicians who sell favors are corrupt and should be penalized as the criminals they are and tossed out of office and into jail.
Not while they’re lining the GOP’s pockets they’re not.
Are you not aware of all the corporate pork in Biden’s “infrastructure” bill?
Blaming the Republicans without mentioning that the Democrats are just as guilty shows bias.
I’ll take a guess that Democrats started it, and Republicans opposed it for many years. Now that the Two Parties have merged to become the TwoParties, they seem to agree on most of it.
You have to remember that it was socialists wanting to destroy our free enterprise system, and Republicans that used to want to save it.
Kad is aware and astute. Her comment wholly pertains to the article.
History of a corporate “gospel of wealth” instead of capitalism is replete.
The American YAWP
John D. got a bad rap because he created a more efficient corporate structure, and his competitors had to resort to using political influence and slander to bring him down.
The terrible thing that Rockefeller did was to provide better products cheaper than his competitors could.
Only his competitors thought that was evil.
May a crestfallen life of boredom pierce you strikingly.
Louis Tikas, age: 30 years
James Fyler, age: 43 years
John Bartolotti, age: 45 years
Charlie Costa, age: 31 years
Fedelina Costas, age: 27 years
Onafrio Costa, age: 4 years
Frank Rubino, age: 23 years
Patria Valdez, age: 37 years
Eulala Valdez, age: 8 years
Mary Valdez, age: 7 years
Elvira Valdez, age: 3 months
Joe Petrucci, age: 4 ½ years
Lucy Petrucci, age: 2 ½ years
Frank Petrucci, age: 4 months
William Snyder Jr, age: 11 years
Rodgerlo Pedregone, age: 6 years
Cloriva Pedregone, age: 4 year
These victims of Rockefeller were familiar with the ‘Death Special’ as a tool to harass them. The ‘Death Special’ was an armoured car with a mounted machine gun. The Ludlow massacre has a place in history despite PR to depict Rockefeller as pure as snow.
The LUDLOW, GREEK AMERICANS IN THE COLORADO COAL WAR documentary highlights indentured servitude, scrip, Rockefeller’s disdain for Colorado labor laws by operating his business using harsh slave labor, and the courage of the miners to face him head on.
Propaganda entirely. Propaganda which fails to mention the role of communists in starting wars during strikes.
The labor wars were started by striking workers who thought they has a lifetime right to the jobs they held, and were willing to murder and intimidate people who were willing to step in and take the jobs they’d left.
I suppose you think that striking workers should be guaranteed to get their jobs back, and that no one should be allowed to replace them while they are on strike?
“There used to be a kind of gentleman’s agreement – they stay out of our business and we stay out of theirs.”
I feel like I’m reading a piece off of History.com its so full of shit.
This country was FOUNDED as a mechanism to bestow the “blessings” of British mercantilism onto a new class of wealthy big businessmen in America. The Federalists were the first group to enshrine new laws and regulations to make that happen (beginning with the Constitution). Their mantle was picked up by the Whigs, who then morphed into the Republican party. The war of northern aggression was fought to maintain the enslavement of the southern farmers to the financial benefit of northern manufacturers and the big railroads. There has always been a parasitic/rent-seeking relationship between big business and the republican party, but since the Progressive era of the late 1800s and early 1900s, the two worthless major parties have both been in bed with these ideas and have used big business handouts to achieve their power and control goals.
If there is a fundamental aspect of the republican party that should be criticized it is that they pretend to care about the little guy but truly only care about big business and Wall Street profits in the end. If the little guy gets helped along the way, so much the better. The FREE MARKET is the product of both success and failure. Robust competition, unburdened by protective regulations, is what brings about the greatest wealth and prosperity for all. The GOP, not unlike the democrats, has their favorites in the business world and does whatever is needed to ensure their success, rather than working to create an economic climate in which all might succeed if they can keep the customer happy. The real problem is that the republicans PRETEND to care about free markets in order to con their gullible supporters into voting for them. Were there the same robust competition in our electoral system (dozens of political parties with easy access to the ballot, news coverage, etc.) then we might actually see parties being held accountable for their duplicity. Republicans know that they never have to change because the competition that is ALLOWED, is so much worse. This can only end poorly.
“This country was FOUNDED as a mechanism to bestow the “blessings” of British mercantilism onto a new class of wealthy big businessmen in America.”
Bullshit.
No, the UPPER RIGHT is CRONY CAPITALISM. Capitalism is going on in that glorious town by the lake. The difference is that the government is not under the control of big business to the extent that they are able to use the power of government to screw over the residents of this town to their own benefit. Additionally, the people do not want change, but their voices still have more power than the government’s/business’.
The GOP are merely the little barking lapdogs of the Uniparty. They exist as a foil but in reality they march lockstep when it comes time to destroy the constitution or declare an illegal and fraudulent election valid.
The Supreme Court ruled that corporations could invest in political campaigns…
“January 21, 2020 will mark a decade since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission , a controversial decision that reversed century-old campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited funds on elections.”
Squabbling over communist vs. capitalist is also a non starter. The mega corporations form a corporatocracy and, if you pay close attention to the ‘wokeness’ of Coke and Proctor and Gamble et al, you see Idiocracy writ large. That movie was a documentary.
For the sixth decade I have been saying this: Corporations are THE enemy of mankind.
Nope, government. Corporations are a by-product of government.
Moronic statement. The corporations own and run the Government. Corporations are the most evil enterprise mankind has ever devised to screw the common person. The American forefathers like Jefferson, Franklin, and Patrick Henry hated corporation with a passion and outlawed them in early America.
The idea of a corporation was not created by any government.
As is usual, governments saw something successful created by the private sector and sought to control and exploit it.
I’ll stick with collectivists, a more dangerous enemy by far.
Combinations of corporations and the state are dangerous to liberty, just like combinations of religion and the state.
Corporations by themselves, have been one of mankind’s greatest boons.
corporations and government are the right and left hands of the same monster. Until people get that through their thick skulls they will keep on good-cop/bad-cop playing us but always ratcheting up their wealth and power.
this fellow gets it (a classic):
https://grrrgraphics.com/march-of-tyranny/
Corporations in a free economy are a huge force for human progress.
Crony corporations are a threat to freedom, because it’s they who are in bed with corrupt government.
Please be sure to make the distinction.
Corporations are not the GOP’s enemy. Patriotic Americans are the GOP’s enemy.
The American ideal was supposed to be avoiding partisan politics entirely.
Pretty utopian.
Not the enemy of the GOP, only its deplorable and held in contempt rank and file. Otherwise the donor class is the corporate partners of the party controlled state.
The GOP is a failed party. They do not represent true conservatives, and never really have. They are basically just religious liberals who want to use the power of government to force individual citizens to live the way they dictate, the same as the Democrats. The Democrats may be batshit crazy, and incapable of any sort of logic or reason, but the Republicans are full blown hypocrites and sell outs. The GOP needs to be scraped and replaced by the Libertarians.
The Donkeys are a failed party too. The TwoParty system establish by our national government is a failed system.
Anyone seeking to use government power to control others, or change others, is in fact a “progressive”, someone who believes humans and human systems can be perfected.
The current Libertarian Party is not something that many sane people can support. It would take an act of Congress to have the Libertarian Party replace the Republican Party.
I agree that corporations are way out of control and should be reigned in, if not destroyed. I have both a sole proprietorship and a corporation.
A note that nobody has really mentioned is that corporations are immortal. They are an entity that does not get tired, sick, retire, or die.
A corporation is a “person” under the law, so it has all the rights of a natural, flesh and blood, person, with none of the liabilities. A corporation cannot feel pain, be left homeless, jailed, beaten, shunned, or shamed. But a corporation can fund political campaigns, have free speech, engage in law suits, buy, sell, lie, cheat, and steal, with virtually no negative consequences. A corporation can amass wealth very quickly by selling shares and/or getting credit. (My own corporation has a credit card with a greater line of credit than any of my personal credit cards.) As a natural person (sole proprietorship or partnership) try to raise money for a good idea or product…good luck.
Imagine if the unions (corporations) could not donate to political campaigns and were instead required to take potential campaign donations and return them to the members, urging but not requiring, that these funds be donated to a certain campaign? If the member had the cash in his hand, and knew that it could contribute to long term political favors, but was not forced to donate, how much of that cash would be spent in donations to the cause? How much to another cause? How much to new tires, a meal out, or the kids little league fees?
My corporation costs me $800 per year in corp franchise tax. In my corporation, my labor has value, so my wages can be deducted as an expense. In my sole proprietorship, my labor has no value, so I cannot deduct it as an expense. How much of a tax benefit is being able to monetize your labor and get the deductions? As a sole proprietor, I don’t get to carry forward losses, etc. like a corp can. If I lose money for a year, I’m upside down. In my small corporation, they tell me that if I make a loss three years in a row, then the IRS will call my corp a “hobby” and claw back any corporate benefit. But if Sears Co. or GM, etc. have on going losses for years on end, they never become a “hobby.” Somehow I can’t find the line where that change goes into affect.
Additionally, all of the nefarious think tanks, “charities,” foundations, etc. that plague our world are also corporations.
The corporation is the tool that allows the oppression of natural, flesh and blood, people, simply because it has advantages over the common person. The corporation, though it is a legal fiction, is in fact, superior to the citizen. If this is not rectified, there will never be a return of freedom.
bug,
Your corporation is out of control and needs to be reigned in or destroyed? Wow!
Don’t let anything hold you back, go ahead and reign it in, or destroy it. Thanks. You may just save civilization.
Poor little Underwood. Writing post after post. 100 thumbs down. So misunderstood. Wanting dialogue. No one responding. Talking only to himself. Needing a hug, so desperately.
Actual picture of UnderWOOD between posts.
Stuck,
You constantly reply to my posts, with insults. I agree that insults don’t qualify as dialogue…
Enough people have actually responded with different opinions, different viewpoints etc. to make your statement ridiculous.