And that is capitalism's Achilles heel. Of itself, unregulated by society it is not self-regulating. It does not allocate benefits efficiently. The unfettered spiral is always descending for the host society, never ascending. However, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that this is so, you will never hear that from any of the Republican talking heads on the Right.
Indeed, there is nothing whatsoever that is either natural or beyond the scope of the imagination concerning the corporate business structure. Indeed, it is a total figment of the human imagination. The five essential characteristics are: 1.) investor ownership, 2.) separate legal personality, 3.) limited liability, 4.) delegated management, and 5.) transferable ownership shares.
In the modern sense, it was the first characteristic--that of "investor ownership"---that was its generative force. Some operations were simply just too great for an individual to take on. So those seeking funds for an enterprise petitioned the host government for the privilege of establishing a corporation. In other words, petitioners had to try to sell the idea of forming a corporation to the government which, before granting the charter, looked at how it could also benefit from the arrangement. In other words, those wanting to set up a corporation needed the permission of the government to do so; it had no natural or other legal rights to even exist. As with so many issues, again, you will never hear that from any of the Republican talking heads on the Right. For them it is a religiously settled matter, and the proposition that the most important test must be whether and to what extent the host society benefits from the legal business arrangement has been completely severed from all comprehension and concern.
When President Bush was first advised, "Mr. President, the country is under attack,"- he was being well advised.
But the attack that September morning was not just from high-jacked passenger jets being flown into New York skyscrapers. Nor was that the most serious attack on this country. Nor had the most serious attack begun that morning from forces beyond our shores. The most determined and grave threats all arose from within, and had commenced decades earlier in the hearts of mostly men who had no genuine love for either this country or its form of government.
Rather, whatever love they possess and manifest is disparately to what benefits can be gleaned from it. Their "love"- was best described by Jefferson, "Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains."-
And they would seize this country, snuff it out, the first opportunity that arose or that they concocted. Was it not Grover Norquist who best articulated the quest to "shrink the government until it would wash down a bathtub drain"-? The goal was to privatize every profit, from soldiers doing KP (kitchen police) duty to Social Security, and to socialize every business risk. Yet as the mantra has at last been proven vacuous of anything worthy of esteem, the Republican clarion call is to not only deny any part in the chaffing that society is suffering, but to stridently contend every element of the distress distilled from the greater society's failure to live up to their sermon.They have largely been successful rewriting the Reagan presidency into that of a cult hero as they held sway for the past eight years. But now. "It is all that liberal Obama's agenda,"- or "It is Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid,"- or "Barney Frank."- It is just never them.
It worked splendidly for those on the Right in Germany, after its fall from World War I. That it was those on the far-Right who had engineered the country into its disastrous collapse and ignominy never secured a foothold under the jackboot. "It was the Jews."- A ranting Hitler assumed the role of the one who spoke for the common German, translating their weariness from deprivation and rage into personal power, much as have Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, et al.
It CAN happen here.
There are only two ways we can prevent it from happening here. So as not to be susceptible to duping, we must educate ourselves about the basics; economics, civics, history. We must not ever remain quiet while in the presence of others who have been swayed by the exhortations from the far-Right. In the words of President Obama, "You know, you have some responsibility too."-
Number of articles in the US Constitution: 7.
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