Thursday, October 7, 2010

Government and Corporations and Choices

Corporations are now beginning to use their accumulated excess cash (yes, they've been getting richer these days while huge numbers of people are suffering) to buy back shares.

That's a good thing for a company - boosts its earnings per share ratio which Wall Street likes, which boosts its stock price (which typically also boosts the bonuses of the corporate executives.)

I don't have a problem, per se, when a corporation pursues it's goals - corporations have done a lot of good things over the decades.

But this use of accumulated corporate funds doesn't do much for we the people of the United States; we need a strong government to represent our goals and address our needs, not those of the corporate world.

It is claimed that the current “uncertainty" is why corporations aren’t using the money they have accumulated while the economy has struggled investing in hiring or infra-structure.

Governance of our country can’t be timid, though, especially in times of trials and in the face of “uncertainty” and and during a period of a drastic reduction of “the public welfare.” (Promotion of the general welfare was one of the six essential purposes the founding fathers declared when creating our government.)

The central goal and focus of a corporation, however, is to maximize shareholder profits. That’s all well and good

That central focus should not be prevail (openly or by stealth) in setting effective public policies or for running our government.

The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution on behalf of “we the people.” Lincoln taught us that the United States is “of the people, by the people and for the people.”

Excessive corporate political power simply does not promote such a vision of what the United
States is or is supposed to be.

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