The whole (Republican) idea of incorporation is to provide nearly all the benefits of a citizen with nearly none of the responsibilities . Come to think of it, that's the status (and them some) ordinary Republicans claim for themselves. Look at "He Who Feels No Shame."
"The only corporate social responsibility a company has is to maximize its profits."
The whole (Republican) idea of incorporation is to provide nearly all the benefits of a citizen with nearly none of the responsibilities . Come to think of it, that's the status (and them some) ordinary Republicans claim for themselves. Look at "He Who Feels No Shame."
"The only corporate social responsibility a company has is to maximize its profits."
That is certainly what is happening, from who got bailed out in the "Great Recession" to the fact that I am forced to communicate with my doctors (Optum owns it all) online, got email to to open My Chart but could not, changed password and got a message I could not be verified and to call a number, was on "hold" for 1 hr 50min before giving up and got on eventually. But that experience is becoming typical. The largest companies want zero contact with customers, apart from access to their bank account. "Deregulation" means we are increasingly living under the rules that giant corporations set for us. Increasingly they shed responsibilities. How many person-hours are spent on "hold" these days? Increasingly they do as they please.
Who are the real "stakeholders"? Are they not, in the end, all of us? Ultimately all of the inhabitants (human and not) on the entire planet?
Heh тАЬ the Nobel Prize тАЬ. I remember being in second grade and how we treasured those little stars that our teacher would reward us with. There were different colors representing different values the most valued was the gold star. Then one day on my way to the Saturday matinee I stopped off at Shaws variety store to get my pea shooter and supply of peas. It was then that I noticed the little boxes of stars of all colors. And I could get all I wanted for the price of a pea shooter. I spent my money on the pea shooter which to me still had some value. Gee I was so much wiser then.
We got the stars too. I don't think the Nobel Prize is meaningless, but there has been some funky stuff in the the politics of who does and does not get one. I just don't know about the merit of all of Friedman's work, but I doubt his callous disregard for his sense of responsibility to society would have pleased the founder of the the prize. Clever people can be cads. Friedman's formula is a patent recipe for sociopathy, and it's not like "no one could have predicted it". Look up the British East India Company.
J L, itтАЩs no longer even the philanthropy of Carnegie with his spreading libraries to small and large towns or Ford making it possible for workers to own the products. Now itтАЩs just to make as much money as possible for the people at the top.
Don't forget Andrew Carnegie was a robber baron, who promoted the idea that a few wealthy men should control society, rather than have an equitable society for everyone. A few libraries spread around, while a nice idea, pales in comparison to a more just and equitable system.
Same here. As a kid, I read with great interest a biography series called "Childhood of Famous Americans", and impressed my parents when I told them that our Public Library in Medford, OR was a Carnegie Library (I'm guessing 3rd or 4th grade at that time). When I hit the age where I was in the "upstairs" (adult) library more than "downstairs" (children's) library, my Dad asked me to read more about Carnegie and Henry Ford. He didn't ask me to do a report or anything, but we did have an interesting "out to breakfast" conversation about those to "pillars" of the US.
"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits." - Lincoln
Of course that capital is not necessarily private capital, nor should all of it be. Robber barons, be they royal or monopolistic are the enemy of liberty and justice for all. Part of that mix is free enterprise, but the notion that business should be a special ethics-free zone, and that laws should protect companies, not workers, customers, or communities is bat guano insane.
This was called Landmark Books, and through the mid-1950s I checked out and read scores of them -- from the public library on Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, Michigan. That library, a colonial style classic in west Dearborn, not far from Greenfield Village, was also a gift from Carnegie.
Yeah, one of my earliest memories was going to what was likely a Carnegie library with my mother and coming home with "Elmer and the Dragon". It's a treasured fragment, and anyway the libraries were a substantial and meaningful gift. But in context? We should not have to go to a king with our begging bowl to finance the General Welfare. Conservatives regularly condemn taxation as theft, but what are low wages and extortionate prices when oligarchs rule the roost?
JennSH, my point was that, unlike todayтАЩs employers who underpay employees and stiff contractors/contract employees, he at least did something for the communities. There were 1700 libraries built here. TodayтАЩs billionaires, many who inherited their wealth (like WalmartтАЩs Waltons, whose employees often rely on SNAP programs), rarely donate substantially to programs meant to make peopleтАЩs lives better.
The whole (Republican) idea of incorporation is to provide nearly all the benefits of a citizen with nearly none of the responsibilities . Come to think of it, that's the status (and them some) ordinary Republicans claim for themselves. Look at "He Who Feels No Shame."
"The only corporate social responsibility a company has is to maximize its profits."
- Milton Friedman
"Privatize the profits and socialize the costs."
It's another unspoken, guiding principle of the stakeholder capitalists.
Well stated.
Cut nothing but regulations and taxes
That is certainly what is happening, from who got bailed out in the "Great Recession" to the fact that I am forced to communicate with my doctors (Optum owns it all) online, got email to to open My Chart but could not, changed password and got a message I could not be verified and to call a number, was on "hold" for 1 hr 50min before giving up and got on eventually. But that experience is becoming typical. The largest companies want zero contact with customers, apart from access to their bank account. "Deregulation" means we are increasingly living under the rules that giant corporations set for us. Increasingly they shed responsibilities. How many person-hours are spent on "hold" these days? Increasingly they do as they please.
Who are the real "stakeholders"? Are they not, in the end, all of us? Ultimately all of the inhabitants (human and not) on the entire planet?
never forget that MF was a fraud. His Nobel Prize should be revoked.
Heh тАЬ the Nobel Prize тАЬ. I remember being in second grade and how we treasured those little stars that our teacher would reward us with. There were different colors representing different values the most valued was the gold star. Then one day on my way to the Saturday matinee I stopped off at Shaws variety store to get my pea shooter and supply of peas. It was then that I noticed the little boxes of stars of all colors. And I could get all I wanted for the price of a pea shooter. I spent my money on the pea shooter which to me still had some value. Gee I was so much wiser then.
We got the stars too. I don't think the Nobel Prize is meaningless, but there has been some funky stuff in the the politics of who does and does not get one. I just don't know about the merit of all of Friedman's work, but I doubt his callous disregard for his sense of responsibility to society would have pleased the founder of the the prize. Clever people can be cads. Friedman's formula is a patent recipe for sociopathy, and it's not like "no one could have predicted it". Look up the British East India Company.
Excellent point Gjay15
along with Rush Limbaugh's and Gym Jordans.
J L, itтАЩs no longer even the philanthropy of Carnegie with his spreading libraries to small and large towns or Ford making it possible for workers to own the products. Now itтАЩs just to make as much money as possible for the people at the top.
Don't forget Andrew Carnegie was a robber baron, who promoted the idea that a few wealthy men should control society, rather than have an equitable society for everyone. A few libraries spread around, while a nice idea, pales in comparison to a more just and equitable system.
P.S. I lived in a town with a Carnegie library.
Robber baron is correct; https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-events/1892-homestead-strike
Yup. Unaccountable "power tends to corrupt", often to the point of sociopathy, is one of history's more salient motifs.
Same here. As a kid, I read with great interest a biography series called "Childhood of Famous Americans", and impressed my parents when I told them that our Public Library in Medford, OR was a Carnegie Library (I'm guessing 3rd or 4th grade at that time). When I hit the age where I was in the "upstairs" (adult) library more than "downstairs" (children's) library, my Dad asked me to read more about Carnegie and Henry Ford. He didn't ask me to do a report or anything, but we did have an interesting "out to breakfast" conversation about those to "pillars" of the US.
Worth asking who supports what.
"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits." - Lincoln
Of course that capital is not necessarily private capital, nor should all of it be. Robber barons, be they royal or monopolistic are the enemy of liberty and justice for all. Part of that mix is free enterprise, but the notion that business should be a special ethics-free zone, and that laws should protect companies, not workers, customers, or communities is bat guano insane.
I read the same or a similar series, Ally.
This was called Landmark Books, and through the mid-1950s I checked out and read scores of them -- from the public library on Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, Michigan. That library, a colonial style classic in west Dearborn, not far from Greenfield Village, was also a gift from Carnegie.
I did also and loved that place.
Yeah, one of my earliest memories was going to what was likely a Carnegie library with my mother and coming home with "Elmer and the Dragon". It's a treasured fragment, and anyway the libraries were a substantial and meaningful gift. But in context? We should not have to go to a king with our begging bowl to finance the General Welfare. Conservatives regularly condemn taxation as theft, but what are low wages and extortionate prices when oligarchs rule the roost?
JennSH, my point was that, unlike todayтАЩs employers who underpay employees and stiff contractors/contract employees, he at least did something for the communities. There were 1700 libraries built here. TodayтАЩs billionaires, many who inherited their wealth (like WalmartтАЩs Waltons, whose employees often rely on SNAP programs), rarely donate substantially to programs meant to make peopleтАЩs lives better.