Heretic

You know, religious nuts both within the U.S. [the usual suspects stumping for the right wing most of the time] as well as beyond [the other batch of usual suspects otherwise called extremists] tell us our materialistic way of life leads to evil.

They have an argument.

But back to my point. The reason corporates get this free ride is the "investment" [otherwise known as a bribe- ah... campaign contribution] to candidates in both parties.

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"In space no one can hear you scream. in D.C. it won't matter..." -Clinton Resurrection: The Alien Queen lives!

Kanadesaga

And my point, besides being in agreement with you, is that those bribes come from their former business associates, current business associates and future business associates. No elected official should ever leave DC richer than when he arrived. Period.

In essence I would preclude any businessman from ever being eligible for any elected office above councilman. Or I would make laws that would preclude them from ever working in, for, with any business that receives any federal or state contracts. Upon penalty of death. It would part of the oath of office.

and the materialistic aspect of american consumerism is for another thread.

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Heretic

I'd start with how European parliments curtail the cost of their campaigns. There's a direct correlation between lost cost campaigns and reduced [not eliminated by any means] corporate influence on government. Then we'd advance from there.

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"In space no one can hear you scream. in D.C. it won't matter..." -Clinton Resurrection: The Alien Queen lives!

PursuitOfHappinessParty

Its not limited there. They pour money into candidates, the parties of the candidate, lobby the elected, place industry insiders into regulatory and inspection offices, and offer lofty employment to elected officials and their staffers after favors are done and office/post/position is over.

A bonus is the now converging corporatism in both parties means a corporation now can consolidate its government clout resources with other corporations defacto. Cheaper and less obvious.

Ike was right, he just didn't have contact with corporations as we know them and thus limited his warning to Industry - simply expand Defense Contractors to include corporations.

The defining moment that galvanized the colonies to seperate from England was in response to the corporation of its day - The East India Trade Company.
We pulled our country out of the Great Depression without corporations. We tooled up a non-existent military into the world's finest without corporations.
We took advantage of the infrastructure and manpower issues of the world post WWII without corporations.

Corporations have turned this nation into a service economy. A service economy would've had major problems dealing with the Great Depression, by its very nature would've had to cease and convert to have made our WWII involvment a possibility, and a service economy would not by its very nature been able to take advantage of the post-WWII world economy and thus built the country into what the pricks in Washington are still riding the coat-tails of.

Another thing, an aside if you will while I'm ranting, Washington has been making laws every year for 230 years. Enough already. Start making un-laws.

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" Tie two birds together and though they have four wings they cannot fly " Blind Master in 'Circle Of Iron'

PursuitOfHappinessParty

If you enter public service at certain levels and in certain fields, you must be dedicated. I want people dedicated to their jobs in public office and as inspectors and the like. I expect it from them as surely as I expect it from the Fire Departmet, Police, military, and the like. There are people who are good at these things and love these things. A peg for every hole.

But that's not what we have in our elections. We have corporatists (or else no $ for campaign, no $100 million+ for ads) running for every office and industry insiders manning key 'watch-dog' positions.

So how do I get that aforementioned dedication? Glad I asked me.

1) Get out any other business. You are no longer allowed any wage. You will then be paid (BTW, If so few are to do so much, I'm paying well) adjusted the annual salary of your highest attained public service job for life.

2) Public service announcement type rules from a newer, stronger, but friendlier FCC. If you, no matter the media, show any political ads then you show all political ads. Equal mandated segments to top 4 or 5 poll winning parties. Same goes for debates.

3) Public funding for campaigns only.

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" Tie two birds together and though they have four wings they cannot fly " Blind Master in 'Circle Of Iron'

Kanadesaga

I'd prefer to kill all lobbyists, make it treason punishable by death to accept any money for anything. Period. and make the fucking corps pay taxes on gross!!

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Malkavian

No, GM is not 2/3 of all US corps. However, they are big, and a good example. The article states "25% are large corporations", which GM is a part of. What about the rest of the 75%? Those are the small and medium sized businesses. I find it quite plausible that small businesses are not doing too hot nowadays, so their non payment of taxes does not surprise me. And if US corp taxes were lower, fewer corps would have had Cayman Island PO boxes.

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Woof!

Malkavian

Taxes on gross are already being paid. Gross comes from sales, and there is a sales tax that you pay.

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Woof!

PursuitOfHappinessParty

I doubt he was refering to sales tax. Sales tax isn't paid by the seller, its paid by the purchaser and is a local tax. So it would be a serpeately assesed taxation and has nothing to do with profits.

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" Tie two birds together and though they have four wings they cannot fly " Blind Master in 'Circle Of Iron'

PursuitOfHappinessParty

US corporation tax amount has very little to do with it. They seek a dodge in taxes just as surely as you and I do, irregardless of amount being paid.

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" Tie two birds together and though they have four wings they cannot fly " Blind Master in 'Circle Of Iron'