Corporations HATE you...

[and-justice-for-all]

and me and all that which is America.

Currently we have a swath of corporations that are undermining us all, because we the people are no longer going to be ok with them treading up on us.

In a clear demonstration of what is going on inside of the belly of these beast, my parents today drew me a great picture with what is going down.

My mother, who has worked for Sony for over 20years is now faced with the fear of being laid off, just so Sony can hire people who will work for 9 dollars an hour and Sony is more then happy to bus in all these people from the surrounding area, more than 2000 people have been hired through temp services.

I know people need to work and I am happy to accept that, but what Sony is doing to its long term full time employees is appalling. The people being bussed in can barely speak English; Sony also seems to be making life there for their full time long term staff hell, an obvious thing to do if you want to push those people out the door, to make them quite.

My Father, who worked for a printing company which is currently union based, retired last year. Good for him, but what is coming for the people who are currently employed there are about to get screwed. When the last contract was due to expire, the company said they did not want to negotiate a new contract, instead they just decided to extend the current contract one year and the union agreed.

What that does is leave the union vulnerable and wide open to be busted, since there was no formal contract signed there is nothing in stone. Knowing that this plant is the only union plant left since the company was bought a few years ago, it is only realistic to see that the company is going to bust the union.

Union busting and hiring people who have to be bussed in only to make barely a living wage...the shit is getting ugly and corporations are to blame, if the shit does not change fast, we are all going to be fucked.

[jwirr]

1. One of the biggest goals of the globalization efforts during the boosh

years was to reject the power of the nations over the corporations. That is still their goal.

[TTUBatfan2008]

12. Consolidation...

Banks, media, entertainment, weapons industry, politicians. All of these have been consolidated over a number of decades to the point that it's not really capitalism at this point. It's fascism. A very few people have their hands in on every one of these aspects.

[Armstead]

2. Unfortunately this post could have been written ten or 15 years ago...And it keeps gettting worse

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. Python nailed it in the early 80's with "The Crimson Permanent Assurance."

It may actually be more relevant now than then.

[izquierdista]

4. The don't "hate" you

They think about you in the same way as they think of raw materials, buildings, utilities, and vehicles -- as costs to be minimized. There's nothing personal about it. They really don't care, the only thing they care about is the difference between your productivity and your costs of production -- their profit.

Corporations are merely a shield to allow the rich (the owners of the corporation) to disavow their obligation to their fellow human beings. When the rich want accolades, they put on the mask of their philanthropic foundation; when they tire of that and want to wallow in their money, they put on the mask of the corporation.

[and-justice-for-all]

7. Ok, so maybe hate was a bad choice of words...they just do not care..nt

[LatteLibertine]

13. This is precisely why I consider them sociopaths

[izquierdista]

16. If they were human

They are no more sociopathic than a real estate contract, a will, a pension plan, a divorce decree, or any other piece of legal paperwork. Articles of incorporation are merely pieces of paper that allow the sociopaths possessing them to act out their true assholeishness. There was a reason that in the early 19th century corporations could only exist for limited time periods and were scrutinized regularly -- to see if the people in charge were fucking over "we the people". If they were, their charter could be suspended, revoked, or terminated. There was enough experience with the British East India "Company" and other rackets that they did not want to allow the rich to set up these proxies to the detriment of the common man.

Fast forward 200 years and these proxies are firmly in control and regularly screw the public over for the benefit of their shareholders (and we know who owns the vast majority of those shares -- the rich). Corporations regularly break laws that are inconvenient for them, engaging in cost-benefit analyses of whether it would be better to ignore the law and maybe have to pay a fine. Throughout history, the rich have always sought to keep the lower classes down so that they would have more for themselves. Corporations are just the latest weapon in their arsenal and a keen one at that. They give the illusion of independence, so that the masses get riled up at corporate behavior, instead of hauling the rich to the guillotine or the firing squad as was done in earlier times.

[Sinti]

5. Corporations have no feelings - they can't hate or love

it's a legal construct designed to facilitate business. The problem lies in the system that demands ever-increasing profits for stockholders. Even if the employees themselves owned all the stock in a company, the demand for ever-increasing profits basically defies the laws of physics. It's not possible, and you're getting close to the top end of what is possible.

The end game has to be that all labor is free, and all materials are free. That's feudalism, a landlord over a large territory (or single large business conglomerate) and slaves that extract resources from that land for the landlord, and go to war to get resources from other lands until there are no others.

I'm terribly sorry for your mom, and happy for your pop. We've really got to get folks to understand the truth of what's happening here. Thanks for sharing your story, we all need to hear them - so we know we're not the only ones, and so we can see the truth.

:hug:

[and-justice-for-all]

8. Thank You...nt

[Teaser]

20. That is the problem

they are machines. And we treat them like they are organisms.

We have the ability to redesign and rebuild them, but we don't, because it's unnatural (i.e., not "free enterprise").

[Oregone]

6. While people may be natural enemies in terms of needs, consumers and workers are still required

Its never about hate. Its about the bottom line. The shareholders will try and bleed as much profits as they can from a business, which works by either ripping off consumers or starving workers. But they cannot do so to such an extent that it puts marketplace stability into risk. They cannot kill their hosts nor cause them to fight back. Corporations relationships with the people are a balancing act about numbers, in the short and long term. But there are as inhuman and as sociopathic (which doesn't need hate) as the profit margins dictate that they need to be

[MadMaddie]

9. What's the solution?

[Oregone]

10. Workers become corporate shareholders as they work

Which makes corporation begin the work in the interest of people after half of the ownership becomes redistributed to workers. Mandate that no one can hold a share in a company after a certain number of years (the company buys it back and redistributes it to workers, proportionally to their pay, over a set schedule). This also creates pensions for retired workers who own stock they must sell back. It further improves the ethical nature of the company by shifting focus from short term growth (for profits of non-workers) to long term growth to ensure jobs and pensions for workers. The tangential effect may create better products/services for consumers.

[The2ndWheel]

19. So one vast and ecumenical holding company?

For whom all men will work to serve a common profit? What of our necessities, anxieties, and boredom?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

11. workers are so apathetic - they don't stike they lie down like lambs

[TheCoxwain]

14. They dont hate you as much as they love their profits ....they have to keep running

faster and faster on the treadmill of profit expectations ..

and that process if they have to sell your mothers and daughters - they wont blink an eyelid.

at somepoint people have to stop getting screwed and see it for what it is...


we need to use the threat of revolution to get the reforms we need.

[Deja Q]

15. I think you mean "to make them quit".

[RepublicanElephant]

17. that's life in these united fascist states.

and repubs still think corporations can solve all problems.

[WinkyDink]

18. This is why neither the UK nor American corporations care to stop immigration, illegal or otherwise.

Lower wages, no benefits.

[Blue_Tires]

21. well, they DO love what's in our wallets....

[Writer]

22. No, they LOVE me!

Then when they left the room this morning they told me they'd call me. I'm still waiting, but I'm sure they'll call soon.