Unregulated Capitalism Harms The Country These Six Ways

Unregulated Capitalism Harms The Country These Six Ways
By Rev. Bill McGinnis, Director - LoveAllPeople.org

NOTE: HTML version of this message, with more links, is at http://www.loveallpeople.org/unregulatedcapitalism.html

BACKGROUND

Unregulated profit-seeking corporations cannot be trusted to protect the Public, because their main objective is to make profits, not to be a do-gooder for the Public. Whenever profit-making conflicts with the Public interest, profit-making wins! Thus they become Predators on the Public, not Protectors of the Public.

This is not a radical idea, but an obvious fact, if you think about it. Profit-seeking corporations exist to make a profit, and the more profit, the better. Anything which increases profits is good for them; and anything which decreases profits is bad. So they try to do whatever is necessary to make profits. This is the essence of Laissez-faire Capitalism: that profit-seeking corporations should be left alone to do whatever they choose to do in order to make profits.

Employees get paid to help the company make a profit, not to be a do-gooder for the general Public. Just suppose a local manager decided to give away $1,000,000 of the company's money to build a playground for the neighborhood children. "The kids need the playground!," he says. Unless this playgound were part of some co-ordinated Public Relations effort, intended ultimately to produce greater profit, the employee would probably be fired, and replaced by someone with a better profit-making attitude.

Suppose an auto manufacturer had some kind of a safety problem, perhaps gas tanks that sometimes exploded on impact. And suppose it would cost a hundred million dollars to fix the problem, but it would only cost ten million to let the problem continue, and pay off the victims who sued and won. What do you suppose the company would do? It would let the problem continue, of course! Deny that a problem exists, claim it was the user's fault, and pay off damages only when forced to do so. These kinds of decisions happen all the time. Why do you suppose the corporations are so eager to get "Tort Reform?" To limit their payoffs for damages, of course! So their profits aren't hurt so much! "To hell with the Public," they think. "They should be more careful!"

And if the Management of a profit-seeking corporation ever did choose the Public interest over a higher profit (unless it were forced to do so by some kind of government regulation), then that corporation would be violating its financial duty to its stockholders. And the stockholders would be entitled to replace the do-gooder Management with a profit-oriented Management.

UNREGULATED CAPITALISM HARMS THE COUNTRY THESE SIX WAYS

We are talking mainly about the larger, publicly-traded, profit-seeking corporations like those whose stocks are traded on the stock exchanges. But the same ideas can apply to any unregulated profit-seeking corporation, even the smaller ones and the private ones.

We recognize that profit-seeking corporations can be a great force for good in the world, creating and providing wonderful goods and services that would be unavailable by any other means. But we also recognize that if they are unregulated, they harm the public these six ways. An unregulated corporation is like a loose elephant in your neighborhood. Who can stop it from trampling over whatever it chooses?

1. NOT PAY TAXES -In order to maximize profits, they always seek to avoid or minimize their taxes.

2. ELIMINATE COMPETITION -In order to maximize profits, they always seek to eliminate or control their competition.

3. CUT WAGES AND SALARIES - In order to maximize profits, they always seek to reduce their labor costs.

4. DISREGARD THE ENVIRONMENT - In order to maximize profits, they always seek to avoid all environmental restraints.

5. SELL DANGEROUS, HARMFUL PRODUCTS - In order to maximize profits, they are tempted to sell dangerous or harmful products.

6. CONTINUOUSLY SEEK GREATER PRIVATIZATION AND DEREGULATION - Pretending to be "efficient," they transfer ownership and economic control from the Public to the Big Investors. And if Corporate Greed totally overwhelms their morality, who will protect the Public from their rampaging excesses?

Please also see "The Twin Frauds Of Privatization And Deregulation" at => http://www.loveallpeople.org/twinfrauds.html

SO WHAT SHOULD WE DO?

We need profit-seeking corporations because they are very efficient and very innovative. They are quick to provide products and services to fill needs, if the profit is there. They can do great things very quickly. But they cannot be trusted to protect the Public, if it hurts their profits to do so. And it is unreasonable to expect that they should - unless they are somehow compelled to do it. But we cannot allow them simply to run loose, like rampaging elephants, trampling down whatever is in their path.

The answer is GOVERNMENT REGULATION! Yes, Government Regulation of profit-seeking corporations. Reasonable regulations, applied fairly, so that all the companies are in the same boat and nobody gets any special advantage. This is not difficult to do, but it does require some effort. And it requires going against the current right-wing Republican policies of Laissez-faire Capitalism: that profit-seeking corporations should be left alone to do whatever they choose to do in order to make profits.

Blessings to you. May God help us all.
Rev. Bill McGinnis, Director - LoveAllPeople.org

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"Come Up From The Fields, Father,"(with free MP3) - An Anti-War Poem By Walt Whitman - A Civil War mother learns of the death of her only son.

"Come Up From The Fields, Father,"(with free MP3)
An Anti-War Poem By Walt Whitman
A Civil War mother learns of the death of her only son.

A Service Of http://www.LoveAllPeople.org - Rev. Bill McGinnis, Director

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Reading by Rev. Bill McGinnis

Download Our Free, Legal, Public Domain "Speaking-Voice" MP3 file of this poem located at http://www.favoritereadings.com/comeupfromthefieldsfather2.mp3

Come up from the Fields, FatherWalt Whitman (1819-1892), Leaves of Grass, 1900.

1COME up from the fields, father, here's a letter from our Pete; And come to the front door, mother, here's a letter from thy dear son.

2Lo, 'tis autumn; Lo, where the trees, deeper green, yellower and redder, Cool and sweeten Ohio's villages, with leaves fluttering in the moderate wind;Where apples ripe in the orchards hang, and grapes on the trellis'd vines; (Smell you the smell of the grapes on the vines? Smell you the buckwheat, where the bees were lately buzzing?) Above all, lo, the sky, so calm, so transparent after the rain, and with wondrous clouds; Below, too, all calm, all vital and beautiful, and the farm prospers well.

3Down in the fields all prospers well; But now from the fields come, father, come at the daughter's call; And come to the entry, mother, to the front door come, right away. Fast as she can she hurries, something ominous, her steps trembling; She does not tarry to smoothe her hair, nor adjust her cap. Open the envelope quickly; O this is not our son's writing, yet his name is sign'd; O a strange hand writes for our dear son. O stricken mother's soul! All swims before her eyes,flashes with black, she catches the main words only; Sentences broken, "gun-shot wound in the breast, cavalry skirmish, taken to hospital, At present low, but will soon be better."

4Ah, now, the single figure to me, Amid all teeming and wealthy Ohio, with all its cities and farms, Sickly white in the face, and dull in the head, very faint, By the jamb of a door leans. "Grieve not so, dear mother," (the just-grown daughter speaks through her sobs; The little sisters huddle around, speechless and dismay'd;) "See, dearest mother, the letter says Pete willsoon be better."

5Alas, poor boy, he will never be better, (nor may-be needs to be better, that brave and simple soul;) While they stand at home at the door, he is dead already; The only son is dead. But the mother needs to be better; She, with thin form, presently drest in black; By day her meals untouch'd, then at night fitfully sleeping, often waking, In the midnight waking, weeping, longing with one deep longing, O that she might withdraw unnoticed, silent from life, escape and withdraw, To follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead son.

# # # Provided by Rev. Bill McGinnisPublic Domain

Download Our Free, Legal, Public Domain "Speaking-Voice" MP3 file of this poem located at http://www.favoritereadings.com/comeupfromthefieldsfather2.mp3 Find more readings and more authors at our website => http://FavoriteReadings.com

Blessings to you. May God help us all.

Rev. Bill McGinnis, Director - LoveAllPeople.org

All of our original content on all of our web pages is in the Public Domain. You may link to these pages by any means you choose, including "framing."
.

HTML version of this page, with more active links, at =>http://www.loveallpeople.org/comeupfromthefieldsfather.html
We are http://LoveAllPeople.org