I read a very interesting book last semester called Jennifer Government. It created a world where capitalism is king. All aspects of life were run by capitalistic corporations. The police force and the army were available to the highest bidder. Corporations with enough money could break any laws they wanted, including murder. Now the reason I bring this up is because of our discussions this week about the interaction of the government and the private sector. It seems to me that corporations and big business prefer to have no intervention by the government in their affairs. That is, until they go bankrupt. I do understand that without the bailouts by our government, we would be in a much worse economic state. My problem is that I don't believe businesses learned anything.
The reason we study history is to learn from the mistakes made in the past. Are the corporations going to learn anything? I doubt it. All business is founded on the principle of profit. Profit at the expense of everything. This cycle will repeat itself at the expense of hard working Americans. Throughout history we have seen the stock market crash numerous times. Although the majority of the citizens of this country do not own stock, when the rich take a hit so do the rest of us. Corporations deal with these problems the same way every time. They lay off employees, slow down production, stop buying materials, slow down spending, stop giving raises and stop hiring. When these corporations do this they are prolonging the problem. It is very much an action-reaction event. When it happens to one major corporation all of the others react the same way creating an economic issue like the one we are in now. A lot of corporations have investments in other corporations which in turn have investments in others and so on and so forth. When one company crashes so do many others. Somewhere along the line this cycle needs to stop. Our country's economy should not be controlled by so few.
I don't have a solution to the cycle but I do have some ideas how to change some things. We Americans, as a group, need to support small business. I have begun changing the way I shop over the last few years. If I can shop in small locally-owned places, I will. If I can buy products produced in my community, I will. If I have to shop in corporate-owned stores, I do a little research and support the places that offer better benefits to their employees. I refuse to support that giant superstore chain that has created a class of unskilled underpaid workers. We need to support our communities and stop sending our money to the rich fat cat CEOs. I know this is an almost impossible task, but if everyone did just a little bit to support their local communities, our economy would become more stable. We would become less reliant on the giant companies. Small business owners would have higher profit which would allow for more and better employment. If 100 small companies hire 10 employees isn't that the same as one big company hiring 1000 employees. Our capitalistic country was founded on the idea of fair competition. Big business has taken that away from us. The possibility of a small business owner attaining the rank of big corporation is minute. Support your local economy and our national economy will benefit.
All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.
Benjamin Franklin
The reason we study history is to learn from the mistakes made in the past. Are the corporations going to learn anything? I doubt it. All business is founded on the principle of profit. Profit at the expense of everything. This cycle will repeat itself at the expense of hard working Americans. Throughout history we have seen the stock market crash numerous times. Although the majority of the citizens of this country do not own stock, when the rich take a hit so do the rest of us. Corporations deal with these problems the same way every time. They lay off employees, slow down production, stop buying materials, slow down spending, stop giving raises and stop hiring. When these corporations do this they are prolonging the problem. It is very much an action-reaction event. When it happens to one major corporation all of the others react the same way creating an economic issue like the one we are in now. A lot of corporations have investments in other corporations which in turn have investments in others and so on and so forth. When one company crashes so do many others. Somewhere along the line this cycle needs to stop. Our country's economy should not be controlled by so few.
I don't have a solution to the cycle but I do have some ideas how to change some things. We Americans, as a group, need to support small business. I have begun changing the way I shop over the last few years. If I can shop in small locally-owned places, I will. If I can buy products produced in my community, I will. If I have to shop in corporate-owned stores, I do a little research and support the places that offer better benefits to their employees. I refuse to support that giant superstore chain that has created a class of unskilled underpaid workers. We need to support our communities and stop sending our money to the rich fat cat CEOs. I know this is an almost impossible task, but if everyone did just a little bit to support their local communities, our economy would become more stable. We would become less reliant on the giant companies. Small business owners would have higher profit which would allow for more and better employment. If 100 small companies hire 10 employees isn't that the same as one big company hiring 1000 employees. Our capitalistic country was founded on the idea of fair competition. Big business has taken that away from us. The possibility of a small business owner attaining the rank of big corporation is minute. Support your local economy and our national economy will benefit.
All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.
Benjamin Franklin
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