Mother Earth on the Chopping Block

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, countries all over the world have given in to an uncritical embrace of neoconservative capitalism, unleashing giant corporations, and welcoming the onslaught of American logos.

The myths behind this de-regulatory movement were brought into sharp relief during the Reagan years, and are socially dysfunctional.

There is a notion that aggregate economic growth is a sign that society is healthy. The fact is, the cigarette, petroleum etc. corporations are getting richer, while schools, teachers, and public serving infrastructure are getting by on less and less. Prospects are bleaker, the pieces of the pie are smaller. The rich-poor gap is widening, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The United States and Europe are in a bubble-economy-induced daze, blissfully ignoring the inevitable consequences of gobbling up the planet, while the third world slides further into squalor.

There's the idea that technology, any technology, is good. The pollution disasters in Russia, South America, Mexico and Western Europe should make it clear that this is a false assumption.

The notion that corporations are benevolent institutions, and once they are freed from nasty, useless regulations, they will make the world a better place for all of us. In truth, the only ones these entities have to answer to are their shareholders, who want maximum profits in the shortest possible time. The managers are pressured to cut wages, milk the government for subsidies and tax breaks, and cut corners on environmental protection.

There's a deep fear also that the only alternative to a free market economy is a state controlled Soviet type economy.

A free market is a democratic market, or so it would seem. The closest thing we've had to a democratic free market was during the post WWII boom, but that is now evolving into something less democratic. The economic markets of today are increasingly dominated by fewer and fewer people, who acquire more power every second. In a true democratic economy, one dollar would equal one vote. Obviously a man who makes 200 million dollars in one year is going to have more influence on his elected officials than someone who makes twelve thousand a year.

Freedom keeps the market robust. A free market encourages competition, which improves quality and keeps prices low- and benefits everyone. Monopolistic corporations have assimilated their competition, and threaten the freedom of the market.

In stark terms, the moral premises that came out of the 80's are these:

In the last twenty years, 'conservatives' have sought to discredit the public sphere to protect corporate interests from democratic constraints, convincing many Americans that government of any kind is bad. This mis-guided, cynical tendency is turning the planet into a pre-fab drive through, which is what most people nowadays think is 'good.'

As these corporate values permeate society, rewarding dysfunctional behavior, they destroy human trust and the family.

The vision of Ronald McDonald with the whole world in his hands should shock all of us into bringing down the multinational corporations, and reviving local economies.

The notion that "small business is the backbone of America" has been a myth since 1950. Corporations cannot be considered "Private Enterprise" - in fact, because they sell shares, they are referred to as "Public Companies," and yet the illusion is maintained that they are "Family" entities. They are more like privately owned Dictatorships.

Of the top 100 Economies in the world, 51 are Corporations, and 49 are Nations. These corporations are in essence private governments - exerting power and influence over products, wages, prices, political affairs, cultural images, fashions, and ideas. But this power is not constrained by Constitutional order. Corporations answer only to their stockholders, and the bottom line - concern for those they control is not necessarily in the mix.

Going global, businesses have reshaped the social contract in first the USA, and now all over the world. One example are the NAFTA-oppressed Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico. They are not happy about corporate barons mowing down their jungles and taking over their coffee plantations.

Global corporation rankings as of May 27, 1999:

These rankings were found by doing a search at Fortune 500.

A Greed Monster is consuming the planet like a virus. It's like a high-speed train, running full speed, and out of control. It's fuel is money, and no single person can be pinpointed as it's driver. It has taken on a life of it's own.

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