Another issue, is that our Public Servant positions have been taken over by Politicians. It was never intended to make a profession out of representing your fellow citizens. Still, Lawyers have become our defacto representatives. They make careers out of making our laws so complicated and twisted that few lay-persons have a chance of decoding them. Citizens should represent their constituents for a brief term and then go back to their life and productive jobs.
Right-wing Republican media presents another problem. The likes of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh who present their twisted opinions as news and facts are brainwashing our citizens. These people have to know that they are outright lying in many cases, presenting it as fact based news. Fox News legally defended itself when caught in some lies by stating that it is not, in fact, a news organization - claiming to be an Entertainment Channel. They tell lies and spread misinformation about progressive legislation, hoping to derail their opponents politically. They will then turn around and support the exact same legislation, renamed and pushed by their party. The damage that these unscrupulous predators are doing to the fabric of our country is immeasurable.
| Revisionist History! Man, people re-working the founding of our Nation to work with their philosophy really tick me off. The United States of America was founded on Individual Liberty, Freedom of Religion and the idea that All Men are Created Equal. Nowhere does our Constitution or Declaration of Independence or Bill of Rights state that this was in any way ever conceived as a "Christian Nation." In fact, most of our founding documents directly oppose any religion in government. Many things have been written on the topic, so I won't re-hash it here. I will say that Thomas Jefferson, a founder himself, argues that Christianity is no part of our foundation. Even many in the church itself sees the attempt to hijack the government as a destructive thing! |
Oh, lets talk about Corporations now. There is deceptive marketing, careless manufacturing processes, dangerous products and other such things. However, since we are coming out of a Recession caused by Bush's Corporate Predator society, lets focus on economics. My problem right now is the increasing gap between Average Worker pay and CEO salary. From the clever 'increasing gap' link, inflation adjusted CEO pay more than quadrupled since the 1980's while average worker pay has dropped to less than take home pay of the 1970's. This is making sure that all the wealth Gushes up, but only trickles down. Many make their money by cutting jobs - exactly what we don't need in this economy!
Honestly, if I were a shareholder, I could be capping CEO pay at 20 times what an average worker makes. Maybe 50 times, if its a really big company. I surely wouldn't allow the 230+ times that some CEOs are getting now. Why? Can you imagine how much that cuts into shareholder dividends? I think capping CEO and other executive salary at 20 times what an average employee makes and giving the executive positions a position-owned amount of stock would be okay. They make the stock dividends go up, they get more money. I think profit-sharing with the entire company is a better idea, but not exclusive. What would be wrong with reserving 10% of stocks for "worker" ownership - so that when dividends go out, every non-executive worker gets a bonus from that?
I do not see how anyone in the world can 'earn' $190 million a year. Nobody can possibly do anything to earn in an hour what their average workers make in a whole year. Some will argue that CEO's deserve such pay. But the idea that CEO's create jobs is ridiculous - most are shedding jobs now. Their high salaries are taking up funds to pay people to fill job positions, not making jobs. They are surely not contributing to a more secure economy by keeping worker wages lower than 1970's ranges. The workers are the majority and the health-watch of the economy. Workers are bleeding salary and compensation while the virus that is eating at our economic stability is creating a sky-high compensation for itself.
Okay, enough for this post. Going to add some more book links at the bottom here and more links...
How Many workers can you hire for one CEO?
Wealth Distribution : Who Rules America?
Who pays the Taxes
Extreme Inequality
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