The Conundrum of Corporation and Nation by Robert Reich

[Crewleader]

Sunday, March 8, 2015

The U.S. economy is picking up steam but most Americans aren’t feeling it. By contrast, most European economies are still in bad shape, but most Europeans are doing relatively well.

What’s behind this? Two big facts.

First, American corporations exert far more political influence in the United States than their counterparts exert in their own countries.

In fact, most Americans have no influence at all. That’s the conclusion of Professors Martin Gilens of Princeton and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University, who analyzed 1,799 policy issues — and found that “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”

Instead, American lawmakers respond to the demands of wealthy individuals (typically corporate executives and Wall Street moguls) and of big corporations – those with the most lobbying prowess and deepest pockets to bankroll campaigns.

http://robertreich.org/post/113130324775

[Cayenne]

1. No corporations

No corporations and everything is groovy.

[Sherman A1]

2. I don't know if that is the answer, however

corporations need to be heavily regulated and limited as to what they can and cannot do. I would not throw the baby out with the bath water, but we are long overdue for significant changes in the shape and focus of the business community.

[1StrongBlackMan]

3. I wish, whenever anyone makes this statement ...

Their only allegiance and responsibility to their shareholders — which often requires lower wages to fuel larger profits and higher share prices.

They would include a line questioning how paying executives 354 times the average wages of rank-and-file U.S. workers (in 2012) for failing results, is serving the shareholders?

It would seem that shareholders would respond favorably to a drastic reduction in CEO pay, since that work put millions back into the company's bottom-line, or a CEO pay scheme that rewarded long-term growth, rather than quarterly targets, as that would align CEO pay with shareholders' interests.

[mother earth]

4. Indeed. This is huge, the inequality talk starts here. nt

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. But CEO pay has little to do with ...

Income inequality, as most CEOS are just W2 workers like you and me ... just much better paid.

[mother earth]

6. Vastly better paid, it has everything to do with inequality, it starts in the workplace & is carried

through as class warfare. It is at the very heart of income inequality. This kind of pay for CEO's did not exist in the 50's, at a time when wages were actual living wages paid to workers, which is no longer the case.

Now, even two people struggle to keep a family afloat, and that is without even getting into the tax burden on the middle class vs. the wealthy.