All hail the Ownership Society -- unless you actually do own just a little bit

[JHB]

Just in case you should run into anyone still pushing the notion of an "ownership society", here's a reminder that Republicans only mean that only the big boys should actually "own", and the riff-raff should just go along, no matter owning stock is supposed to make you an "owner":

Skimble parses a WSJ report:
One of the basic tenets of capitalism is that owners get to decide things, like who manages their property. Now with far more than half of all Americans invested in the stock market through 401(k) plans and IRAs and direct investments, the SEC wants to cut their rights of ownership off at the knees (WSJ):

A high-stakes battle over shareholder rights, dubbed "proxy access," has become a proxy for something else: the performance of Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In a party-line vote, the SEC said companies can reject shareholder efforts to put their own director nominees on corporate ballots.* The move set off a storm of criticism from shareholder activists and Democrats, who responded with their sharpest rebukes yet for Mr. Cox.

*In other words, you can own part of a company but have no say in how it's run.

I've said it before and I'll say it again — the GOP is no longer the party of business. If you want a strong economy, vote Democratic. Otherwise, ur ownership society -- pwned!
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Full Skimble here:
http://skimble.blogspot.com/2007/11/ownership-society-pwned.html

Original Wall Street Journal article here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119626880655106640.html



Can't let shareholders think they actually run things, eh?

[ixion]

1. whenever the GOP talks about 'ownership' they mean it in the feudal sense

as in they 'own' We, the People. That's been plainly obvious to anyone paying attention, but given that the average 'Murikan has the attention span of a gnat, it's no surprise that we're where we are today.

[annabanana]

2. Well THIS ought to ruffle a few "think they're Repug, but have no clout"

idiots into rethinking their allignment...

It ought to, but there seems to be no connection between their nervous systems and their brains.

[baldguy]

3. The top 5% own 50% of the country.

The next 5% own 25%.

The bottom 90% owns 25% of the country. When they say "majority rules" they don't mean the majority of PEOPLE they mean the majority of DOLLARS.