Notes on an Ideal Civilization
Last night, a friend of mine sent me a considerable laundry list of things he thinks everyone, certainly all U.S. citizens, are entitled to as basic human rights. I don’t know. I see providing all this stuff gratis to a society that includes millions of lazy screw-ups as really distasteful, not to mention unworkable. Having said that, here are a few broad strokes that should be made in the direction of an ideal civilization as I see it:
Universal healthcare. Taking this out of corporate control will result in far better outcomes for everyone (except those seeking to profit at the expense of others’ misery) — even for the doctors who are quitting in droves as more of them every day are realizing that what they’re doing does not align with their personal sensibilities. Such a move will also immediately focus healthcare on wellness, versus the invention and encouragement of disease so it can be treated profitably.
Taxing wealth. The dominance of lawyers and other bullies over our civilization’s last 500 years has resulted in the unfair concentration of wealth in the hands of a very few. Take Warren Buffett’s advice. He’s a smart guy, and he’s absolutely right in this case in particular: If your legislators can’t seem to figure out how to do this, fire them, and get people who can. It’s not really that difficult. They work for you; you don’t work for them.
Taxing polluters. I suppose I’m really something of a libertarian at heart, in that I really don’t object to fossil fuel companies (or cigarette smokers, or helmetless motorcyclists, or prostitutes, etc.) as long as they pay the costs of what they’re doing. Want to burn coal to generate electricity? No problem, just pick up the tab. It’s $700 billion/year in the U.S. alone, and it’s rising exponentially. If that cost isn’t acceptable, simply stop behaving in ways you can’t afford. The moment this happens, renewable energy will be heralded as the deal of the century, tens of millions of people will be hard at work developing and installing cleantech, and the climate crisis will be averted. And the figure I quote here doesn’t include the cost of wars. Which leads me to:
Separating business from government. Get rid of “Citizens United” and the related legislation surrounding corporate lobbying that has all but ruined what our forefathers sacrificed so greatly to provide us. What will happen when Big Money no longer owns Congress? Actually, all the above-mentioned garbage will stop more-or-less instantaneously. No more wars to provide Big Oil access to foreign crude, no more protection of Big Pharma in its quest to addict every single one of us to some form (preferably several) of medication, no more favors for Big Food and its reckless indifference to our health (especially childhood obesity, diabetes, etc.) It will all be gone with the stroke of a pen. See MoveToAmend.Org for more on this.
In closing, here’s an essay on social ideals that I wrote a couple of years ago: The Civilization that (Nearly) Everyone Wants.
This strikes me as a subject on which almost everyone has an opinion — especially you! I hope to see your comment here.
You are certainly hitting the nail on the head. Wish you remained focused some more time and come to the conclusion that the struggle is between CAPITALISM Vs Socialism. Socialism is Govt spending is based on need and today a handicap in world economy. Pure capitalism is also bad. Somewhere in between is the IDEAL SOCIETY. This takes me back to Plato’s UTOPIA and the Indian ARTHA VEDA in which MANU desires a caste system based on MERIT and not hereditary
Regards
shrinivas
I’ve heard that the current generation of “Millennials” are more interested in doing the right thing for humanity and the planet. If true, it will be interesting to see how their ideology can influence our government and society. If people’s selfish ways could turn instead towards looking out for each other, we could create that utopia. Can human nature evolve toward human nurture? Each of us can play a part individually in making this a better world… let’s get to work! Craig especially- I think you need a cabinet post to help guide this administration.
Craig,
In principal, I agree with you positions. However, since this is supposed to be about the environment and clean energy, I question the reasonableness of using the same forum to address issues that are only indirectly related; it could reduce support from people who are concerned with environmental issues but have different opinions on the issues which are not directly related to the environment.
Based on both my personal experience and on what I have read, I believe that much of what we spend on health care is wasted and does not improve health. About three years ago, I was given expensive tests and procedures, including an unnecessary MRI, that added at least $3,000 to costs; the combination of Medicare and Medigap paid for everything. If necessary to be more convincing, I can provide details.
If a way can be found to reduce the number of unnecessary tests and procedures, probably the total national costs for healthcare could be drastically reduced without reducing quality of care.
Must of us have read about medical errors which are estimated to cause up to 100,000 deaths per year and increase hospitalization times. More effort to reduce the number of medical errors surely would reduce costs.
It is unclear to me how to reduce the number of unnecessary tests and procedures and how to reduce the number of medical errors. But surely people who are experts in the field could get together and find solutions.
Frank, I do not think that in real life we can separate these issues. The environment, our health, our forms of government and financing the same are all interrelated in real life. Our present tendency to compartmentalize is a result of applying marketing approaches to selling and fund raising around each issue. I read Craig’s blog because I like his overall philosophy of life and I think he has nailed the basics of what make up the keys to a sustainable egalitarian civilization here.
I am sorry that some here do not want to accept the need to redistribute wealth for the benefit of our society as a whole. Our country’s greatest financial trauma have occurred when we have forgotten this need. Indeed the whole success of the entrepreneur driven economy depends on funding of multiple vision carriers and allowing success and failure to depend on market economies.
Siloing capital in fewer but larger pools(the result of low income and estate taxes) tends to reduce the risk taking that leads to technology breakthroughs in my opinion. In fact the human nature tendency to maintain the status quo if you are comfortable works against ground shaking technological breakthroughs, if those who are comfortable control all the wealth. We have seen this with the opposition to renewable energy even though it is clear that for the long term welfare of our country we must stop producing CO2 at these levels.
There has been a long history of economic debate in which the discussion has focussed around “tax and spend” or “low tax reduced spending” forms of governance. It seems to me the former often results in a declining national economy increasingly in debt, whilst the latter increases inequality and tends to result in a failing society with some citizens subject to extreme poverty, lack of healthcare, lacking good educational opportunities.
There has to be a better way in which to use and distribute resources. Ideally opportunity would become available to all with universal availability of good education and healthcare and political power taken back from the rich / corporate bodies and returned to the people. Such a society might well have relatively high levels of taxation but would need to invest the money wisely in building up the infrastructure of the nation and the capabilities of the people.
At this time, I would say that the Scandinavian countries are closest to achieving the above with a more equal society than most parts of the globe. These countries have superb education both academic and practical, so achieving strong high technology economies. There is a strong emphasis on improved sustainability, and superb healthcare. True, people pay very high levels of tax but they have high levels of pay, and in return for paying these taxes enjoy a comprehensive set of state funded services, low crime levels, and a quality of life unequalled on the planet.
To Frank I would say that regarding the cost of healthcare I believe a large proportion of the “unnecessary” tests which take place are a result defensive medicine – or put another way the laxative of choice of the professional classes, fear of litigation!
I know from experience in the UK that the whole sector also has huge amounts of paperwork – with absolutely every possible action having a procedure guide written locally in a massive duplication of effort. I used to work in a medical laboratory and was involved in writing some of our procedures. Just to illustrate how extensive these procedures are, I joked to a nurse one day that I was going to write a spoof procedure guide for wiping backsides, and was told by the nurse – “we have one of those”.
Hi Craig,
Those notes of yours are appealing to be commented but I agree with Frank Eggers upon the purpose of this blog.
I´m a brazilian citizen and have visited US many times for the last 30 years, and also lived for 2 years as an expatriate in Canada. I like US, Canada, Brazil, and some other countries but the “ideal society” is just that, ideal. I guess it all boils down to our internal values, our balance, how we´d like to enjoy our brief life, together with our neighbors or at their expenses. Most of us when get old enough begin to thing broadly, without boundaries, there is no this or that, good or evil, there´s just what you do and do not, period.
If you keep struggling to rework yourself out towards getting along with other people as being an extension of yourself, some being your best some others your worst side, I guess societies should progress. We know many times history shows us we need to receive hard blows in our heads for us to change, but it may be possible as well to have a better world without tragedies.
Knowledge (of yourself mainly) is the best cleanser.
Yo Craig:
Our founding fathers(and mothers)were pretty sharp cookies, but there is one area where I think they could have done a better job. That area deals with the concept of rights! For example, the so-called “bill of rights” should have been expressed as the “bill of responsibilities” for we have no rights at all if others don’t exercise their responsibility to preserve the rights of others. To paraphrase the friend that wrote to you, “Everyone, certainly all U.S. citizens, is responsible to extend basic human rights to each other”. For the most part, the membership of Homo sapiens is woefully inadequate in this arena, and that is why our present system is seriously broken.
Craig:The issues you discuss require a paradigm shift of not only our society but of our species.
The reactive practice of medicine (cut and drug);the consolidation of wealth; the ingeation of 60,000-80000 chemicals, and of course the fascist societal tack we are taking are not sustainable for our species.
In blogging with others I always ask people to look at a population curve to highlight the challenges of our times.
I also suggest that everyone look at the Grey Panther list of issues. A true look at a better society.
In comment to Doug, esp. YES…a thousand time YES. A paradigm shift is definatally needed. But HOW can it be accomplished when we do not have a knowledge that is not binary [all or nothing]? Not dualistic [got to have a goog/guy bad guy profiterring edict and, always profiling enemies] and not user friendly [hats, badges, stripes and robes labelling, jargons and highly paid puppets]. We allow this and we are a product of it no matter what any of the prattle shugests, but he use of the abstract word: INTENT. The brain of our existance tells us biolgically that we can feel the worng perpitrated by the agrement processing of all human beings. Only by “intent” [the so called abstract…also considered to be the PRACTICE of the biblical wor: EVIL. Can govenments live OFF the misery of the people much longer? The little man expects it because it is in his epigentic backgound to be his stuper, his befuddlement, his very own “bio-stigma”… if you will.
Our eye-con [the iconic masks we call our PRETENSE, is what we are all TAUGHT to wear by the age of five} disorder is systemic, our degridastion cause and the subsequent cause and the ersatz effect of our deficient mental capacity, being reduced each year, one law at a time, to become a serious mono lithic evil accord. It is defined by one fear related cause after another, leagalized for profit and social loses, one affect at at “Time”, made for the forgery of our Systemic ICONIC Charge. If you don’t get it you will, in a serious shock reality which is coming our way very soon. We are in a post-genetic stall, not any different than the 1800 years of what was called…the very un-holy Inquision. We are trying to shed this enigams, but we are still five genertains awway form eveing being ablet to adress it.
When “the word was made God”…. man dawned his papaer-pretend masks and the FEELING of our BEING human, being alive, as a living truth was became off-set capitulation…and the MOVER, that cam move all of us to SEE we dismiseed. BUT how? The bio-god, of our innate sense of the liveing truth, which was very tender and very human, was unermined. We call it our emotinal undoing, ofcouse which says nothing at all, but…to bad. Until the eyes were conned in to using eye conditioned aspahsic nature of the writtien word to contol every one [the masees]and everything [the deed] on this planet we were not concerned with the time it take to accumulate and possesss. We hold a paper in our hand and we then we are MADE to think we actually OWN [possession] what it says on the paper, including the artificial words: love, hate, good, bad, right, and wrong truth and lie. there is no law that does not contain human fear dismissed. Not one. We care by institutional grants. We would rather be a slave to fear than being kind and not need to fear at all. do you get it?
Only in an ICON, systemic disoder [our epigenetic bio-stigmas] do these words toy with the five to the fifth powere MOVER direct knowing conscuiousness. The human essense, if not in the icon box is very powerfull and can move mountains. But who is man, woman enought to TEST it? We teach human slavery, believe it or not.
Imagine a child comes up to you and says… “mommy, i am not going to share the truth with you for you will use it against me…BLACKS LAW says that. Say what? look it up,please. Albeit, if we took the dictionary of connotation [Webster, Oxfords icon implants to the eye/ear memory corridor of the BRAIN] away and then gave the kids, Blacks Law {denotation] the empowered iconic contol impetus directives, children would be at psycolgical war by the age of six. Do not ask why kids are killing their parents, their teachers and radom walk bys. We are all very sick. “Of couse you arn’t dear”…said the doctor, who hands you some pilles to still the pain of it all. Wha wants to hear stuff like this? Not me. But, Who sees this beside ME? “Speack up little man”, as Wihelem Reicht said in his book…The MURDER of CHRIST. Are we little men? Misicule women? We are a race on emotional FIRE and the life elements of a living breathing WATER can not stop the systemic bio-stigma, the eye-con parady [the binary icon Backfire we all share. Doug said…”we are in a very challanging time as populations add new fuel to the systemic/endemic fire. If the many continue to agree and allow, kiss our sweet buts goodby. those who agree the miost think the least? Bio-fact. The emotinal stall-out plan is genetic is a bio-dam…the feeling of our energy being compressed…a biblical feeling of the word: damnation….Say…DAMN NATION. Is it systemic? Come on now, you can figure this out.
We do not know the the real bio-truth [our direct knowing feeling MOVER quite enough YET] so…. mans binary demented truth will NEVER set US free? In the words of Albert Einstein… “No knowledge that shoud be will ever come from the knowledge that is !” Why? It is all or nothing BLAME. Imagine we do not allow innocent middle ground? WE will kill each other to be what……we are what, the goog guys, WHY? Bar of good raised? the word RIGHT can give us the illusion we have what? Power? Power over what? deluusion of the word: future? Is word: intent our manditory word: future; because if it is it is MURDER.
The [pretend/made-up] word was empowered and became the source of or systemic now, commercial grade excuse, our so called: reason. During the Imperial cult movement and the murder the biblical CHRIST we learned that If…IF… you question the insanity of the systemic icon disorder, you could be killed, drugged today, or not ever be found. Answere this. What, in real terms, would you say is the persentage of programed insanity today. Programed to mean…taught as all or nothing duality of empowered, highly PAID…RIGHTS. Icon masked Empoweremnt? Say 50%? Try, 80%. AND rising as the time macheery of our so called: long term memory, is stricly governed by the inhuman nature of governement INTENTIONS.
WHO, controls the misery of the world. Taxation? Justified polution? Unjustifed health regulation? Human processing by head game labels, tags and profileing to keep the bad guy bad? Guess, we are not going to tellyou just how evil the stuff is that you VOTE for. BUT, Who allows this stuff to continue? The comman man, the little man who wants power over his fellow man [women too].
Was the Christ man just a sensative and kind man that shared, felt his feminine side, or was he a mean rogue, out of an INSANE realm? What became the headway to a unique epigenetic bio-curse was froged by the ROMAN empire with the help of the fear from the Hebrews? The journals tha make what waht is called: the bible, are omens, curese and warnings. How many see this? That impact ignored way back when is now the exponant of our Bio-stigma. It si a cerrebaral degradation by denying all the sense the genesis right of our bio-being to complete itself as the mOVER, moves us to feel. What was not TIME issue at all, but a devolution of the thinking bio-Brain [our enmass endemic disorder] lack of think ability, and merely word-processing and labeling, is dwon and dirty core evil. Say NO? We have all been reduced to puppet drones. Not you? Of couse not, dear. How ever, since you are still APART of it all and can’t solve it, think again. This drone society is out of Genesis reality as is the JOB motives centered on what? Stricly, empowerement. Nurture menas what? Paper icon contracts made of human desperation? look at it, please before we are all washed away in the “sins” [the binary duality of our systemic agreement process] of this world: Are the effect/cause[s] directly realted to the stupidity of the entire fintion of the binary agreement process? Bet it is. Wake up people.
The so called: time period The Historical Christ, predicted that more than not, he was actually the FOUNDER of our “conscious purging” [so we FEEL bad, means not wanting to feel it only] that made its way into a heady neural bio-degradion. we feel bad and do not know why? Not so. Like tainted innate energy we exist in an energy suffication; we can’t breath feeling. We can’t think because we can not trust our feeling nature to be able to do that? Bio-stigama equalls innate fear as feelings are dismised. feelings are warnings only. Not eanting to feel makes eendemic bad guys and systemic iconic blame. do we recignize it? Say what?
In a stange way we really do not want to know or have to address the nature of our human nature, do we? Of course, if we have to we will. To say we are in an epignic stall, is more like it. Unless anyone has a degree set within and taken from the current agreement process, we are merely the little people. There is no ehtical or moral lesson here. This is only warning because I do care and I am human. James Beyor, founder: http://www.sedrive.us ……..green marine propulsion today!
Whoa, could you be a little less coherent please?
Hi. I’m the friend with the “laundry list”, folks. I’ve long held Craig in high regard, and we’ve occasionally delighted in sparring on this very theme. We share a great many perspectives across an array of disparate subjects, but I humbly point out that intellect often breeds difference of opinion. So I trust that readers with open minds will be interested to learn something about my reasoning. Forgive me for covering a bit of ground here to communicate fully.
(Incidentally, I feel this is an indispensable topic for this site, because it goes straight to the heart of how we distinguish between, firstly, what is encompassed within the Public Commons – and consequently is solely the birthright of the whole people and the sole prerogative of their representative government – and, secondly, what properly resides within the realm of business and private interests.)
I’ll begin with the brief reflection that something like 80% of the people in the labor force are fully employed, and most of the rest of those people are looking hard and/or working part time. This solid reality suggests that the number of “lazy screw-ups” is far less than may be rumored. That reflection is particularly authenticated given that worker wages are flat, worker benefits are falling, and prices are rising faster than reported (the official inflation rate doesn’t count food, fuel or finance charges). Even with all the belt-tightening, and the many sacrifices that average working people have been making for years for the good of their employers, American productivity still impresses.
There are those among us who are all for applying the Law of the Jungle to human society, forgetting that such savagery is exactly what we long ago left behind in favor of cooperation. The act of sharing works miracles, folks, plain and simple…
Municipal fire companies: These are far superior to the old failed idea of the early private firefighting brigades that allowed a non-subscriber’s building burn to the ground… and what job is now more noble and beloved than being a city fireman?
Public schools, in the face of their strident detractors, have performed splendidly in comparison to the old system of ‘education only for the wealthy, and costly ignorance for the rest’ – this was especially true in the 1950’s and 60’s when public schools were well-funded, teachers were respected for the honorable work they do, and universities were far more affordable.
Medicare and Medicaid: In spite of their severely handicapped status providing care for only the oldest and poorest of us, these entities have proven they deliver more efficiently and with far less overhead.
The Post Office: The fabulously efficient and treasured Postal Service would turn a fine profit (never originally asked of it), had it not been quite uniquely forced by a 2006 GOP voice vote to cover the retirement of its unborn workers out to 75 years in the future – and to build that fund inside of just ten years. No other organization in the country is required to do that. Many tenaciously burdensome restrictions that work to hobble the USPS were also slipped in under that same voice vote.
Worker-owned businesses: 33-year old Isthmus Engineering and Manufacturing, New Era Windows Cooperative, Alvarado Street Bakery, and many other firms have shown what’s possible with an ethic of sharing here in the US, even when it comes to making a buck. One famously successful global example is Mondragon Corporation in the Basque region of Spain – founded in 1956, the firm’s 2011 revenue was more than 14 million euros (that’s over $18.5 million today) with over 83,000 employees.
Even traditional US public stock companies like Costco continue to show the value and practicality of sharing in America by paying and treating workers fairly, and making sure they’re all granted the benefits that make long-term careers possible for family earners – as well as not siphoning off too much at the top. Ole’ Henry Ford saw the wisdom in paying his workers enough to afford his products.
Many people might make assumptions and misunderstand me, but let me be clear. I’m definitely all for anybody who’s turning a fair profit under any legal circumstances, wherever people can make a casual and informed decision about whether or not to buy what’s being sold.
However, I’ve long observed that whenever profit is the determiner of policy for maintaining and delivering society’s necessities, extreme pain immediately follows. Looking honestly at our society, I could see pretty quickly that the profit motive must be completely separated from all the truly essential aspects of human life.
Below is a list I developed some time ago of all those goods and functions that I firmly believe should be included in that category of essentials (and, further down, another list of many more examples of things that should NOT be considered essentials, where private business should be welcomed).
Properly regarded, these needful things aren’t products that people may choose whether or not to buy; they are part of the public commons that we must all share in to survive. Whenever these are allowed to slip into the control of private hands, a tiny few enjoy opulent splendor and an outsized level of political power, by which they directly create and exacerbate the desperate condition of masses of people and, ultimately, threaten the diversity and the viability of the biosphere.
Here are my fourteen points…
Save These Vitals from Cold Greed – Move Them to ‘Commons’ Status…
Healthcare – to include R&D and delivery in preventative medicine, medically necessary surgery, dentistry, and pharmaceutical cures and treatments (with a strong restored focus on R&D for cures)
Nutrition – encompassing the organic and sustainable production, preservation, transport and delivery of all basic foodstuffs in grains, fruits, vegetables, juices, meats and dairy
Government – including the executive branch, state and federal legislatures, all judicial bodies, all law enforcement and correctional facilities for juveniles and adults, and fire protection
Military – inclusive of all branches including the coast and national guards and the production of all supplies and equipment
Education – to include infant and preschool childcare for the children of parents at work or seeking work, primary K-12 education, afterschool programs, and university through post-graduate degrees
Energy – involving the nationalization into the public commons of all the nation’s energy reserves and imports, all existing and future resources and the development and maintenance of all generation/extraction technology, and the production and distribution of all energy and fuel that is not sustainably produced by the end user
Water – to include the regulation and enforcement of the free access and delivery of potable water in sufficient quantity for drinking, bathing, washing, cooking and modest landscaping, sewage, and the enforcement of efficient agricultural use (covered aqueducts and irrigation canals, and drip irrigation, etc.)
Public Commons – covering the permanent acquisition, maintenance, operation and protection of all state and national parks and forests, all preserves and reserves, all the present commons known as ‘government land’, and all wild open spaces not presently designated as privately owned, all presently ‘undeveloped’ watersheds, all aquifers, rivers, and streams that serve as water sources for people or wildlife habitat, and governing the protection of the atmosphere from pollutants originating inside our borders as well as working rapidly toward effective global commons defense
Infrastructure Development and Maintenance – to include all roadways, freeways, waterways, all utility delivery and maintenance, all analog and digital communications
Basic Internet Access and Computing with Full Net Neutrality – the equivalent, scaled over time for advancing technology standards, high-speed broadband access with 8GB RAM and one terabyte of memory with MS-compatible open-sourced office suite and open-sourced web browsing and downloading capability, with robust virus protection and recovery
Transportation – to include the production and maintenance of all automobiles, passenger vehicles and motorized vehicles, all industrial vehicles, all trains, buses, trucking, and aircraft, and the provision of training and regulation of drivers of industrial and personal vehicles
News and Public Affairs Programming and Content –to be converted to non-profit public institutions on the Pacifica Foundation model, with a broadcast/cable television and radio/satellite footprint, as well as an online and print presence, which are commercial free and take neither corporate financing of any kind nor more that 20% of government financing
Housing – 400 square feet of basic shelter with privacy, security, bathing, cooking, cooling, heating and laundry amenities, safely supplied with water, power, gas and sewer, to be made available as a guaranteed minimum per person over the age of four
Basic Insurance – Life ($500k), Home & Contents ($250k), Auto ($50k), Fire/Flood/Earthquake (reconstruction and replacement)& Liability ($500k), with coverage adjusted annually for holistically accounted cost of living and replacement value assessments
So, take a look at some places where many of these options are being wisely exercised. Examine the demonstrably fertile and productive work/life aspirations, and the widely-documented health and well-being, of all those populations within the very few highly developed nations across northern Europe that manage to approach this “laundry list” of fourteen ideals. Are our own people any less capable or deserving?
I firmly conclude that if we began “providing all this stuff gratis” there would be even fewer “lazy screw-ups” here within a generation. Most certainly, with comparable decisions being made here in our nation, there would almost instantly and for all time be exponentially less misery across the vast majority of our population. Think also how purely our universal public schooling, the GI Bill and affordable college degrees contributed to our national prosperity in the 1950’s and 60’s. Based on all these considerations, I’m confidently recommending that we decide as a nation to make that 14-point investment and enjoy the dividends.
What does this leave for private enterprise?
Here are just a few examples of the ample opportunities that will remain for profitable ventures in business:
• Delivery and production of boutique services and artisanship (from day spas to wrought iron décor)
• Advanced high-power hardware and software for computing, scanning and printing
• Entertainment (television, webcast, film, music, theater, fiction and non-fiction print publishing)
• Electronic home theater, gaming and entertainment systems
• Toys and sports equipment
• Clothing and shoes from casual to formalwear
• Jewelry
• Non-basic housing
• Household appliances, eating ware, artistic décor, embellishments and furnishings
• Interior and exterior fixed decoration, remodeling and landscaping services and supplies
• Human-powered personal transport (bicycles, etc.)
• Hospitality facilities (hotels, resorts, etc.)
• Elective surgery, elective dentistry, and elective medical procedures
• Tattoos, piercings and other decorative and cosmetic body modification
• Gourmet foods, snack foods and recreational drinks
• Nutritional supplements and vitamins
• Specialized training and equipment for hobbies, artistic trades and boutique services (woodcarving, cosmetology, etc.)
• Entertainment events and services on private land
• Private security equipment and services
However, in all cases, the rule of law must recognize and address the fearsome power of Greed.
Corporations must be strictly regulated – and the owners, executives, and controlling shareholders must be held accountable worldwide by the threat of long-term incarceration and severe financial penalties. They must be required to limit and internalize all of their costs of production, and to provide a sustainable, legitimate, and tangible net contribution to the national economies in which they operate.
International speculation in currency must be prohibited (or rendered irrelevant by a single global currency). National and international legislation must be enacted and enforced to cap the hoarding of money, capital, and market control. International minimum standards for environmental and occupational safety, and for compensation, must be enacted and enforced.
Greed unleashed is a muscular, lethally venomous and single-minded beast that invades and infects utterly. It must be shackled, harnessed, and directed, before it will work for the greater good of nations.
I enjoyed all the comments,wish I could speed read, I say reduce every government job paycheck by 20%, and see how fast things get fixed.That’s what happened to the average American in the last ten years. Make all lobbing illegal,stop all grants,and subsidies to oil co.,and mega farms,push green projects,expand organic farming Utopia is clean air,water,food,love,and peace!