America is fast becoming one gigantic company town

[leftofthedial]

Everything owned by the corporation: all utilities, services, real estate, buildings, businesses . . .

The corporations, in turn, are predominantly owned by a small percentage of the population.

Gini coefficient near .85, top 1% of population owns 40% of everything . . .

The people are so much chattel, just a resource to be ground up and turned into money, like ore.

Gotta love that laissez faire capitalism, eh?

[whistle]

1. Just like back in the late 1800's up through when FDR became president in 1933

[OneBlueSky]

2. the latest trend is states selling roads to corporations . . .

which then seek to make a profit by charging user fees, i.e. tolls . . . coming to a major highway near you . . .

[Virginia Dare]

3. The people don't own much of anything any more...

even the wealth on Wall Street is falling into an increasingly smaller number of hands. The Bush Administration has even proposed selling at least portions of our National Parks to private companies. What's left?

[leftofthedial]

9. your labor

[Cerridwen]

4. I especially like the entrepreneurial spirit of for-profit prisons

I'm sure glad someone can make money of those damned, worthless, less-than-human criminals! Reform?! Reform?! You can't reform animals like that!




note: for those who don't know me well this is dripping :sarcasm:

[Solly Mack]

6. I adore you

Just had to come out...

[Cerridwen]

11. :D Well, Solly -

the feeling is quite mutual.

:loveya:

[In Truth We Trust]

5. k&r for truth

[Double T]

7. The wall street powered 'corporations' are ONCE AGAIN destroying.......

the economy of THIS NATION; that is TWICE in the last century. Some people NEVER learn, specially greedy robber barons.

[Nikki Stone1]

This describes it exactly. Or you could say we are all Nibelungen now

if you're operatically inclined.

[pscot]

8. Milo Minderbinder lives!

Let's not forget for-profit War. Blackwater and Carlyle gotta make a living too. And the beauty part is that everybody has a share.

[va4wilderness]

10. I talked to someone who had worked for Walmart...

this weekend. She said she now is thoroughly convinced they are evil, having worked for them. She told me they have some program to bring in large numbers of workers from other countries (I guess Eastern Europe, or other places). They are paid subminimum wages. I asked how a large company could get away with something that seems to be so blantantly illegal, but apparently they can - from what she says.

She told me about someone who fell off a tall ladder, was injured, and got fired - practically on the spot.

And lots more.

Yeah, we are all one big unhappy company town. :hide:

[populistdriven]

16. 'The Corporation' is a must-watch - it explains the psychopathic personality of corp's

You can even watch it for free on the net.

[Prophet 451]

12. Observation

Ever notice that laissez faire capitalism and the "free market uber alles" mindset only started to come back into fashion once most everyone who remembered the Crash of '29 was dead?

[Beausoleil]

13. Everybody's Working for the Man Again

Chorus:
Everybody's working for the man again
Everybody's working for the man
Everybody's working for the man again
Everybody's working for the man

We had a hardware store on Main Street
A drug store and a grocery too
Then the megamarket opened on the edge of town
And there was nothing anybody could do

Everybody's working for the man again
Everybody's working for the man
Mom and Pop had to close up shop
Everybody's working for the man

We had a radio station that played our music
The way we all liked it round here
Then a big corporation with a whole lot of money
Told our jockeys what they wanted to hear

Everybody's working for the man again
Everybody's working for the man
They got everybody dancing to the same Top Ten
Everybody's working for the man

The fox is in the henhouse, cows are in the corn
Rooster's too scared to crow
Fat cats are up in the farmhouse now
Doin' the do-si-do

The broadcasters bought off the FCC
Big oil's got the EPA
Halliburton Halliburton Halliburton Halliburton
What else do you have to say

Chorus

Little fish are eaten by the big fish
Swallowed up head and tail
Then the big fish are eaten by the bigger fish
Till we're all in the belly of the whale

Chorus


- Kevin Welch

[leftofthedial]

14. Kevin Welch is terrific

and nailed it here

[Beausoleil]

15. Yes, indeed! n/t

[JVS]

17. This is what happens when you don't have a Socialist Superpower to scare your masters into...

tossing crumbs your way.

[manic expression]

18. It is the natural course of capitalism

the bourgeoisie will further their interests, unless we fight back.

[Rydz777]

19. 400 to 1

A company town in which executives are paid 400 times what the average worker gets. Jim Webb has pointed out that in one day an executive makes more than an employee makes in an entire year. Note: this is not "class envy," it's just distress at a very unhealthy economic situation.

[Deja Q]

20. Big Government is bad, true... I don't see how Big Corporation is any different.

Both are ran by people.

Both don't care about small businesses despite talking about the contrary...

Dunno.

Just wait and see, I suppose.