We know that corporations often make profits because they parasitize the commons-- stealing assets, like clear water, clear air, uncompensated or treated worker injuries, use of educated workers or use of roads that far exceeds the average human's use. If those corporations paid for those abuses-- paid to the commons-- then we might not have the budget problems we have and we might have less problems with the environment

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We know that corporations often make profits because they parasitize the commons-- stealing assets, like clear water, clear air, uncompensated or treated worker injuries, use of educated workers or use of roads that far exceeds the average human's use.

If those corporations paid for those abuses-- paid to the commons-- then we might not have the budget problems we have and we might have a lot less problems with the environment or workers or other ways that corporate parasitization exploits our commons.

Corporations might even find that some of their business was no longer profitable, or they'd come up with ways that did not expose them to the costs of compensating the commons.

So here's my proposal. Make it a viable business to find and report cases of corporate parasitization of the commons. Set a law that makes it illegal to parasitize the commons. Don't provide specifics, like adding X amount of toxic sludge to a creek. Simply make it a law that there is zero tolerance for any exploitation of the commons. And then, offer bounty hunters rewards for exposing parasitization abuses. Of course this will include whistleblowers-- people who are inside the corporations who have an opportunity to see wrong. The rewards for exposing corporate parasites should be large enough so a person can blow the whistle without worrying about losing his or her job.

Of course, corporations will fight every charge at first, with an army of lawyers. But, if the laws are well written, without gaping loopholes, it should be possible to make legitimate accusations hold.

I envision a business where environmentalists, using the law, can not only stop companies from polluting, but also fund their organizations' activities for years to come. Whistleblowers will be able to stop execs from exploiting the commons. Ideally, the law will make it a crime to knowingly continue to exploit the commons once it has been made clear, by various means, that the action or policy is indeed commons exploitation.

My guess is that companies and individuals in the US exploit the commons to the tune of at least a trillion dollars a year, probably more. Some will be wealthy and some will simply be lazy or just not care that they are dumping poison into the environment, or poaching electricity, or simply littering.

If bounty hunters and whistleblowers report just ten percent of the abuses each year, the government will get $100 billion or more, and I propose that the bounty hunters get 10% of the fine.

Of course, once the abuse is identified, the corporations will have to pay fines annually until they come up with alternative approaches. That will bring in additional revenues to local, state and federal governments. I'd love to see this applied to fracking. And I'd like to see extra fines and jail terms for companies and executives that lie about what they are doing.

I can imagine some of the more red, conservative states refusing to participate. But the law should include federal penalties as well, with states and localities sharing in the benefits if they share in the policing and prosecution of corporate parasites in their areas.

I imagine that companies and the US Chamber of Commerce will howl bloody murder, saying that this will cost jobs. On the contrary, it will create jobs for bounty hunters, lawyers, inspectors, people who follow up to see if compliance orders are being met. And if some companies go out of business, so be it. We have too many corporate parasites and the world will be better off either curing them of their parasitic behaviors or ending them by putting them out of business.

As with most legislation, this would probably be set to apply at first, and with tougher rules, for bigger corporations, say with more than 50 or 100 employees. But ultimately, even company and individual should be accountable for what they take from the commons.

Authors Bio:

Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.

Check out his platform at RobKall.com

He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity

He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com

more detailed bio:

Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.

Rob Kall Wikipedia Page

Rob Kall's Bottom Up Radio Show: Over 400 podcasts are archived for downloading here, or can be accessed from iTunes. Or check out my Youtube Channel

Rob Kall/OpEdNews Bottom Up YouTube video channel

Rob was published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com for several years.

Rob is, with Opednews.com the first media winner of the Pillar Award for supporting Whistleblowers and the first amendment.

To learn more about Rob and OpEdNews.com, check out A Voice For Truth - ROB KALL | OM Times Magazine and this article.

For Rob's work in non-political realms mostly before 2000, see his C.V.. and here's an article on the Storycon Summit Meeting he founded and organized for eight years.

Press coverage in the Wall Street Journal: Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table

Talk Nation Radio interview by David Swanson: Rob Kall on Bottom-Up Governance June, 2017

Here is a one hour radio interview where Rob was a guest- on Envision This, and here is the transcript..

To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.

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His quotes are here

Rob's articles express his personal opinion, not the opinion of this website.

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