Robert Reich: Beware Capitalist Tools

[marmar]

Beware Capitalist Tools
Monday, May 27, 2013


Forbes Magazine likes to call itself a “capitalist tool,” and routinely offers tool-like justifications for whatever it is that profit-seeking corporations want to do. Recently it has deployed its small army of corporate defenders and apologists in the multi-billion dollar fight to keep the effective tax rates of global corporations low.

One of its contributors, Tim Worstall, recently took me to task for suggesting that a way for citizens to gain some countervailing power over large global corporations is for governments to threaten denial of market access unless corporations act responsibly.

He argues that the benefits to consumers of global corporations are so large that denial of market access would hurt citizens more than it would help them. The “value to U.S. consumers of Apple is they can buy Apple products,” Worstall writes. “Why would you want to punish U.S. consumers, by banning them from buying Apple products, just because Apple obeys the current tax laws?”

Wortstall thereby begs the central question. If global corporations obeyed all national laws — the spirit of the laws as well as the letter of them – and didn’t use their inordinate power to dictate the laws in the first place by otherwise threatening to take their jobs and investments elsewhere, there’d be no issue. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://robertreich.org/post/51486709867

[xchrom]

1. du rec.

[fasttense]

2. I have been saying this for years.

Why should corporation who ship jobs out of a country be allowed to ship their sweat shop labor produced crap back into the market they abandoned? No corporation has a right to use our markets for free. They don't pay taxes here, they don't provide decent jobs here, they are bad at cleaning up their messes and their products frequently kill their customers. Why should they be able to sell their sweat shop products in American markets? Wal-Mart has no right to sell Chinese products to Americans.

When corporations say free markets, they mean free to them but very costly to us.

[rhett o rick]

3. The trouble is most Americans think that it's ok for them to get the cheap products and refuse to

look at the big picture. Materialism is an addiction.

[rhett o rick]

4. If we continue to blame corporations we will remain lost.

We the people allow corporations to be born and live because we recognize the value. However, if we allow the corporations to get too big and powerful, then disaster is inevitable. We must recognize that corporations have no morals and shouldnt be expected to because unrestricted capitalism will not permit it. Corporations need to be carefully controlled.

So why dont Americans insist on controls for corporations? We are materialistically addicted. We may shake our fingers at Apple and tell them "shame on you for using slave labor", but we still buy their products.

Seems to me like the capitalist's goal is to gain capital. They can do this by making wealth or stealing wealth. Most wealth is made by exploiting the environment. But that's a lot of work and limited. Stealing wealth is much easier. Bains Capital is a good example. But where will this eventually lead once the 1% steal all the wealth of the middle and working classes? When the USofA looks like Haiti?