The Corporate Betrayal of America -- Ripping off the Public, Running off to Avoid Taxes

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/corporate-betrayal-america-ripping-public-running-profits



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Business Built on Our Backs

(a) Research

The most essential aspect of business growth is the long-term basic research that is largely conducted with government money. Starting in the 1950s, taxpayer-funded research at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (the Internet), the National Institute of Health (pharmaceuticals), and the National Science Foundation (the Digital Library Initiative) has laid a half-century foundation for corporate product development. Even today 60% of university research is government-supported.

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(b) Infrastructure

Thanks to the taxpayer-funded National Highway System, corporations have acquired access to markets across the country for over 60 years. Along with road construction came the water, electric, and telephone facilities needed to sustain their businesses.

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(c) Law

A litany of advantages accrues to the business world through the legal system. The wealthiest Americans are the main beneficiaries of tax laws, property rights, zoning rules, patent and copyright provisions, trade pacts, antitrust legislation, and contract regulations. Their companies benefit, despite their publicly voiced objections to regulatory agencies, from SBA and SEC guidelines that generally favor business, and from FDA and USDA quality control measures that minimize consumer complaints and product recalls.

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(d) Education

Public colleges have helped to train the chemists, physicists, chip designers, programmers, engineers, production line workers, market analysts, and testers who create modern technological devices. At the primary and secondary levels, the "equal opportunity" principle mandated by the Supreme Court in Brown vs. the Board of Education has contributed to business growth, building the math and language skills that until recently led the world.

[marmar]

1. k/r

[Newest Reality]

2. I think it is the other way

around.

We betray the major corporations with our pesky rights, wants, needs, that is, if they interfere with corporate agendas.

If we are going to consider any betrayal by the Fortune 500, we would need a very long tract here on the history and length of it. It would seem that the notion of betrayal is merely a by-product of the failing assumptions we have gathered by consuming too much propaganda for a few generations.

[rhett o rick]

3. Forgive me if I sound like I am blaming the victim, but....

Corporation have no morals. They are not human in spite of what the SCOTUS says. They are run by humans who are immune to prosecution in most cases because that's what we allow. If the humans running corporations show morals and it affects the bottom line, they will be replaced with humans that wont let their morals interfere.

WE allow corporations to be formed. They exist at OUR pleasure. WE give them immunity from some risks because WE think the trade off is worth it. But it is OUR decision.

WE have forgotten who is in charge. WE are. And WE need to get our shit together and reign in the corporations that WE allow to exist.

Regulating corporations is OUR job, or at least those we elect to represent us.

Blaming our ills on corporations is easy but a distraction. We need to get tough with our elected representatives.

This of course doesnt apply to all corporations, but to those that are crushing our liberties and freedoms.

[Octafish]

4. 'Betrayal' is the word.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery, and too many places all around the world show who made the real sacrifices.

These days, way too many corporations and their managers and boards exist only to make a buck instead of a better world. Off Shoring jobs, profits, and allegiance...whatever Wall Street demands.

It's not ignorance. It's intentional.

[moondust]

5. What did anybody expect?

A system that mandates little more than maximizing profits for private shareholders will surely foster some predators that eventually come back to bite you in the ass.