We did have limitations and the Roberts supreme court just eliminated them. Congress should have started impeachment proceedings immediately after the Citizens United ruling. That was unabashed politics at it's worst. I do think the only way to make sure we have restrictions that stick is to make sure they are in an amendment. Corps have WAY too much power because they have access to WAY more money that the average Joe does and thus they have WAY more influence on the political process than we do. I think they should not be able to donate anything to the political process. Corporations are not people...I think that the concept that they are is completely ridiculous. They can't serve in office, they can't serve in the military, they cannot be put in jail or be executed for crimes, and they cannot do anything a living human can do. Should they have rights and protections...sure...we don't want to see abuses coming from the other side either, but they do not have free speech, the do not have a right to influence politics. That right there is a no brainer to me. If a company can donate money to a candidate and any of the employees can donate to a candidate, then that is double dipping. Plus it is not right that a corporation should be able to donate since it is made of many individuals and I would be highly surprised to find many situations where everyone in the company agrees. I think the same should apply to unions and other organizations. That is why I am all for public financing of elections. You get x amount of dollars to spend and that is it. Not donations, no personal funds, everyone is on an even playing field and no one has a financial advantage because they are independently wealthy or their donors are wealthier than their opponents. No PACS or other groups that can run ads or sponsor events that would offset costs...everything has to be financed from the amount given to a candidate. This would stop swift boating and other reprehensible tactics. The other thing that needs to be added into the equation is accountability. If a candidate makes a statement and it is a false statement, there needs to be legal liabilities. Mudslinging is one thing, but when you start making shit up, that is another.
I am not sure I would want to live to see that because that sounds like a lead in into the Terminator ;-). -----Original Message----- From: Robert Munn [mailto:cfmuns...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 01:19 To: cf-community Subject: Re: So this Wisconsin Thing That's why we need a Constitutional amendment limiting the power of corporations. Let's step back for a second and consider why the current situation is unsustainable, and how the current trajectory of our economy reveals a fatal flaw in our current incarnation of capitalism and free markets. By definition, corporate managers and boards are duty-bound to maximize profits for their shareholders. The natural outcome of this situation is the elimination of most US-based labor. It will happen, and it will happen this century. Ray Kurzweil has calculated that technology is now advancing exponentially across all fields, and he figures we'll come to the Singularity in 2045. He figures by then machines will be able to design and build newer, even more sophisticated technology on their own and us slow-thinking humans will be left in the dust. Assuming the availability of resources for all of this technological growth, robots and AIs could run everything in just a few years. Bear with me for a second, even if you don't buy Kurzweil's argument. The end result of our current capitalist system would be that, while humans would technically have no need to work at all since machines could do everything for us, only shareholders in the surviving companies that owned the technology would benefit from such stunning advances. They would have all the money, all the resources, and everyone else would have nothing. Nothing, that is, except the votes to elect a government that will use those technologies to provide most everything for everyone. Science fiction? I wonder. I hope I'm still around to see it happen. On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 6:46 PM, Eric Roberts < ow...@threeravensconsulting.com> wrote: > > So without unions, all we have is corporations. Better start > practicing that goosestep and straight armed salute. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:334613 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
