If you lay down with dogs, you get fleas (no offense to dogs)

[Duer 157099]

Even in the face of this disaster in the Gulf, when people from that area are interviewed they inevitably support the oil industry because of how critical it is to the economy in the region. They cannot fathom the idea of losing companies such as BP because of how many people would become unemployed.

And then there's the issues of 401(k)s. Almost everyone (who has any retirement, that is) has their money in a 401(k) and are counting on that rather than social security. So, by their own economic necessity they become "partners" with the mega corporations like BP, Wal-Mart, etc, who are destroying the ecosystem and our economy, but are returning pennies to the investors, so the investors support them and approve of whatever these corporations do that improves the bottom line.

This is how the corporations have become inextricably entwined into our society and economy, and why it's almost impossible to do anything about it. You can tell people to stop investing in the oil sector, but if that's where the big returns are, who will do it? (me; I refuse to have any oil companies in my 401k, and I make sure I know what companies the mutual funds are in).

The corporations know this, and they know that an economically squeezed citizenry will more likely let them continue on their paths, which is exactly why they continue to squeeze us, hard.

It's frustrating to see what the problems are and what the solutions are, but to know that the solutions cannot be implemented because the corporations have already seen what the solutions are and have taken preemptive action to keep us from going down that road.

[hlthe2b]

1. I lay down with dogs and never have had a flea...

Of course I live in Colorado, where the altitude & semiarid climate is not so conducive to fleas and ticks as in the more humid areas of the country. Just sayin.... Maybe we need a new adage.

[Scuba]

2. +1

Need a new analogy. Not all dogs have fleas.

[corkhead]

3. by the title, I thought this was another James Carvell post

:shrug: