The parasite that is capable of killing its host

[mia]

In a nation that, we are told, is hopelessly divided, most everyone seems to agree on one thing: The system of government that worked so well for us over its first 200 years is now broken, perhaps fatally so.

On the left, many seem willing to bring dramatic change to fundamental institutions such as the Electoral College and the U.S. Senate. The right, meanwhile, has put its faith in a virtual emperor who is openly disdainful of representative government....

There have been many values that we as Americans have been taught to clutch tightly to our breast, and one of them is this: You can never tell a person that he has made enough money and cannot make any more. This tenet is held even by those who have little chance of accumulating $50,000, much less $50 billion.

We are aghast at the mere suggestion. It’s socialism, communism, redistribution of wealth, dogs and cats living together. We have been taught this not by great thinkers like Jefferson, Locke or even Smith, but by the very self-same people who would be directly affected by limits on wealth, and have created a class of psycho-babblers who have convinced the rest of us that greed is not only moral, but desirable....

https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/opinion/tim_rowland/the-parasite-that-is-capable-of-killing-its-host/article_02fd0e42-c8a2-5145-9b00-fb09f4c23989.html

[dalton99a]

1. Capitalism, in short, is preying on itself.

So it becomes acceptable to buy up a medicine that people need to survive and raise the price exponentially. It becomes OK to buy a company for no other reason than to sell off its assets, leaving its employees without jobs. It’s fine and dandy to find a way to execute a stock trade a nanosecond before legitimate traders do, profiting off the resulting uptick in the stock price.

Capitalism, in short, is preying on itself. Nothing of worth in these instances is being produced — in fact quite the opposite — save for the money rolling into the accounts of the wealthiest of the wealthy.

Greed has always been with us, but the difference, the 21st century difference, is that corporate greed and representative government are now one and the same. It is now case law. Corporations have been elevated above individuals. People who try to go to court to right a corporate wrong are finding that the corporations have gotten there first. There is no justice for the individual.

We look at this wealth, or should, not with envy, but with a tinge of sadness.

When you have everything that money can buy, including entire islands, where is the joy that comes from achievement? How shallow does life become when all that matters is a number beside your name on a Forbes list — and that if you are sitting at $11 billion you will walk over your own mother to pass the guy who’s there at $12 billion.

People such as these can have their wealth. But only if they do not destroy our country in achieving it.

[mia]

2. Such a good essay.

I wonder if there is any way to save us from corporate greed.

[brush]

3. Yes. Regulated capitalism. Something Dems implement but repugs tear down.

[dalton99a]

4. +1

[SocialMediaInfluenza]

5. Vulture Culture

And the song is even better!

[MasonDreams]

6. Corporations are chartered.

They are allowed to exist by government. If they do not serve the public interest they need to be changed. Most specifically, the environmental damage they do somehow is not their responsibility?
Who goes to jail when a corporation destroys everything in it's path towards shareholder money?
If they can't afford to be sustainable, sorry, the death penalty is necessary.
The rotting corpse if a corporation poses no environmental hazard at all.