Forum Post: So Easy to Attack Business...Until You Start Your Own
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 9, 2011, 6:30 p.m. EST by Frank
(19)
from Washington, DC
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I hear a lot of griping but would like to know of those who criticize business how many of you have actually started firms and hired people? How many of you having done so have grown into larger companies still based on your founding principles?
These principles perhaps being (from what I hear in this forum):
- Paying a living wage.
- Paying your CEO's well below what the market provides.
- Providing very generous benefits and a pension.
- Sourcing all your products in the USA.
If it were so easy, then go out and do it. That is when you find out the truth. You will be regulated to death, pay very high taxes and worry constantly about being sued by customers, and your own workforce.
Easier said then done.
Bullshit, I have my own business and I am part of the top 2%. The issue is allowing the wealthiest 400 families and largest corporations to PURCHASE politicians to do their bidding and maximize their profits. Ban all contributions to politicians.
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
Obama 2012 re-election Finance director is the son of former Bank Of America CEO charles gifford, just one of the bankers who created this mess, "keeping it all in the family" WE ARE DOOMED
Obama no longer represents the 99% if he ever did.
Check out our plan to beat them at their own game:
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
Although I'm all in favor of taking down today's ineffective and inefficient Top 10% Management Group of Business & Government, there's only one way to do it – by fighting bankers as bankers ourselves. Consequently, I have posted the Strategic Legal Policies, Organizational Operating Structures, and Tactical Investment Procedures necessary to do this at:
http://getsatisfaction.com/americanselect/topics/on_strategic_legal_policy_organizational_operational_structures_tactical_investment_procedures
Join
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/StrategicInternationalSystems/
if you want to support a Presidential Candidate Committee at AmericansElect.org in support of the above bank-focused platform.
easier said than done
if politicians can not receive contribution,
only the rich will afford ad time/ tour time
AD time and all other expenses will be paid from a public trust. Every candidate who gets on the ballot will have the SAME public funding. Hey it is a great test to see if they can spend our money on a limited budget wisely right? Check out this action plan which addresses your concern:
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/home/the-steps-to-non-violent-revolution
but then there would be rules as to who could tap this public trust
and those rules could discriminate
I gave $5 to the food table at occupy san diego
Campaign Finance Reform is basically taxpayer money paid to any citizen who gathers enough petitions to get on a ballot. Once on the ballot each candidate is only allowed to expend money from this trust. So for example, Presidential candidates might get $20 million each, Senators $5 million each and Congress $2 million. No money while while serving in their terms from any source including lobbyists because they would no longer need to raise money and they could focus on their jobs for the first time.
why not give them public media time instead ?
that would cut them off from private media support
we have equal time and yes the FCC should be given the authority to force the networks and cable stations to give free air time to each candidate under the campaign finance law. Of course this will never get done until a list of serious grievances are presented to the government which brings me back to the election of delegates to an independent congress in July. https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
Haha, they already tried that. "Two" sides were represented. The same two sides that are scrabbling to keep hold on power that has been permanently broken by the free speech of the internet.
with of course the stipulation you posted
that other candidates can get public airtime by petition
How about free speech, rather than begging or bribing surly fuckin bureaucrats for permission?
doing that right now
That's great! And it is undoing the power of controlling one-way communications. The matrix is broken.
Not until Unions get out of the pockets of politicians as well. It's a two way street.
Absolutely, They are just as corrupting and bribe pushing.
I salute you. We have to be willing to compete in a game which isn't rigged.
You can't ban influence. Also, does your business pay way above market values in terms of salaries and benefits? You never answered the question so I have no idea what this "BS" comment is about.
I see both red harring and straw man fallacies there. publicus1 linked the official declaration.
Yes I pay for my employees' healthcare, payroll tax and we have a 401k for them with profit sharing, Of course I could make more money if I did not provide them these benefits but IT IS NOT ALL ABOUT MONEY!
Get the corporations our of our Republican Democracy because they have corrupted both parties with money.Capitalism is an economic system not a political system. When capitalism becomes the political system, you have fascism or oligarchy.
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/home/the-steps-to-non-violent-revolution
You wouldn't happen to be hiring by chance would you? Lol I know, but its partly a serious question. I can't find a job to save my life atm because any job that opens up is flooded with more than just a hundred applications and I have yet to be gainfully re-employed since February
we are on the east coast and just made some hires but what are your skills?
manual labor(I'm 31 so I'd guess that the majority of my work exp is manual labor),retail(2 years working a scan gun basically sorting,picking thru and stocking product.)I was forklift certified but its been years since my certification,so I need a brush up.Computer literate(I can network and I can do some trouble shooting). And when I can find work for it, I shoot videos,produce and edit them. I play bass(freelance) for bands that need it. I can wash dishes like no ones business and I can barback,make a drink,and cook for a pub/bar. I also have 3 years of security(for music venues) as a doorman/basic security guy. I'm not sure what your company is, I just thought that I would give you most of my relevant skills. I have thought about making it to the east coast,( I live in texas and the jobs are disappearing,even the burger flipping jobs are damn near gone. Houston has more ghettos than when I got here in 04. The place used to be booming now business is shutting down everywhere).
These corporations view payoffs to politicians as a cost of doing business and it pays off by getting government contracts and the regulations THEY want to maximize their profits even if means destroying the environment or sending every job overseas so they can pay their workers a few dollars a day.
Didn't ask you that.
You don't have pensions? 401K is a cheap way of avoiding them. Get my point now? That makes you an evil corporation according to liberals.
I bet you also don't pay a living wage to the lowest levels. Does you janitor earn $40,000 a year?
No one uses pensions anymore. Even the unions realize this. No matter what I say you will deflect and and find fault because that is who you are. And no I don't pay a janitor, I pay a worker-owned cleaning company. You don't want anything to change so it is pointless talking to you.
you are not mentioning the real problem. if you could claim any price to your goods you could easily afford taxes, lawsuits and whatever.. the problem is that you are competeing on a market for sales of your commodities and that is indeed a contradiciton to living wages as in high production costs.
This movement does not represent the 99%, that's for sure.
CEO pay is not the issue; fraud is. When a company lies about it's financial situation a month before handing out fat bonuses and two months before being on the verge of bankruptcy and begging for a government bailout we are dealing with criminals perpetuating fraud.
Any reasonable person can see that we are stuck with a government that colludes with corporations to perpetuate fraud and force against the people, and that's corporate fascism.
It's the governments job to protect the people from fraud and force, so it's the government that is at the root of our problems.
Outlaw Lobbyists and Outlaw Lobbying. This will help remove the Rich Corporation's influence on Politicians in Washington
Outlaw Lobbyists and Outlaw Lobbying. This will help remove the Rich Corporation's influence on Politicians in Washington
So.... only business owners count? Is this what you're telling me?
"Criticize business" it's about banks first.
And yes, CEO pay. It has skyrocketed since the 1970s what are any of them doing that demands a "market salary" that is 475 more than what a production worker makes.
It is a free system ... U can work hard and be a CEO
AMEN !!!
I believe regulation/taxes may have been placed to preserve larger monopolistic business
making it difficult for a small business to run
Push in the right direction, or let corporate greed run us all over. That is our choice.
Corporations are run by boards who are elected as long as they at least vote for themselves. The laws don't recognize votes against them. Shareholders can vote for, or abstain. There is no "vote against" in our laws, to remove a bad corporate board member. This is much of the reason why our corporations don't pay a living wage, overpay their CEO's, take benefits from employees and give CEO's bonuses if they are fired, and outsource to low wage, worker abusing, polluting factories anywhere.
True, "if it were so easy, then go out and do it", and although I'm all in favor of taking down today's ineffective and inefficient Top 10% Management Group of Business & Government, there's only one way to do it – by fighting bankers as bankers ourselves. Consequently, I have posted the Strategic Legal Policies, Organizational Operating Structures, and Tactical Investment Procedures necessary to do this at:
http://getsatisfaction.com/americanselect/topics/on_strategic_legal_policy_organizational_operational_structures_tactical_investment_procedures
Join
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/StrategicInternationalSystems/
if you want to support a Presidential Candidate Committee at AmericansElect.org in support of the above bank-focused platform.
Been there and done that. I agree that it isn't easy but there are a lot of things that each of us haven't done isn't easy. Easy isn't the issue. If you have a company or just the good idea somebody will try to take it away from you. That is the reason we have laws. But bad laws are created to take it away from you as well. If you are paying Congress to do it, you are wrong. And if they will do it for you they are wrong. And if the system has been changed to exploit your competitors, your customers, your employees for you, it is wrong. Things which are wrong should be fixed. We have to choose sides.
Incidentally, can anyone name a company in the USA that employs more than a handful of people and embodies these principles? A company that subsists without subsidies and doesn't go bankrupt? Love some examples....
the whole culture is subsidized with food