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Can corporations really interfere with the health or our world communites? If so how and what should we do about it?
If corporations' bottom line is profits for it's share holders, is there a moral obligation on their part that those profits are not at the expense of any community or it's own employees? Take for example the biggest oil corporations that have destroyed thousands of acres of fetile forests and have caused damage to our oceans again and again at the expense of many communities for decades. All the while making record profits for it's share holders. And there are many other corporations that do and keep doing similar damage at the many communities detriment. Does any entity have the power to challenge such violations on the part of such negligent corporations? If not, why not? This is of course my personal observation and I am no expert but I am simply posing these questions for the sake of the benefit of the only planet we have. If the UN is not looking out for the planet's and it's inhabitants interes' then who should the world community turn to for help? I don't even hear any plea from our world religious leaders on these critical matter, do you? If I'm wrong to assume any or all of this, can you at least guide me and show me where I might be off mark? Thank you.
Nate Maddison
He does a good job answering parts of your questions.
The one bit I would like to highlight is the section where he talks about how much money is made per patient in the last 6 months of the dying process. I believe this is a crucial area of abuse 99% of the general public doesn't know the truth about (both the cost and the conditions in our "ethical" treatment of death in hospice or palate care clinics are in)
One extra fact that should speak volumes- many palliative care clinics have given up on pain management(as it doesnt work well over long periods of time) and simply place the patient under 24/7 heavy sedation until they pass.
Jay Parkinson TedX talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5GcEiLGSRQ&feature=player_embedded
Colin K N A U F
The corporate structure was set up by taking advantage of the law set in motion to enable slaves to enjoy freedom. It was never meant for a corporation to take advantage of the masses. The sad reality is it does. With abandon. The two highest earning profit centres of the globe are war armaments and patent medicine. Both are deleterious to the survival of species and sustainability of the planet. Both have moved us away from our inherent DNA handbook of survival. We no longer create health which is established by our birth and the process under which we were born. Our high tech high interventionist medical model of industrial birth spawns the perfect smaller brain, poor health and all the requirements for a military medical hegemony success story. But not health, happiness and harmony. Those are only provided by nature. When we honour our nature rather than corporate machinery, we have physiological and psychological health, which begets harmony. When we examine the science we learn that the so called uncivilized, less developed nations, tribes, communities of the globe are the healthiest. Where as those who attempt to fall under the lock step of western Military - Medical hegemony are the consumers of our wares.
Corporations have all the rights of a human without any of the responsibilities. They are, our undoing. The balance has moved so far from the fulcrum that we don't know who we are, why we are or what we are doing. We need to be told by a nanny state run by marketing marionettes. We the public have become consumers: the puppets of profit.
Western democracy is an oligarchy. We need a 'Western Spring' to flush the lobbyists for multi-nationals from our so called democratic institutions; if we ever what to be real once again, born with health, fed on the elixir of life and the milk of human kindness, bonded to our life source and worthy of our species; we have to kick the consumption habit that is killing us and the planet.
*Monsanto
Ruben Ruiz
Colin K N A U F
Holy 'Agent Orange' Batman...lets get them all at 'Roundup'...if we miss any we can fix'em with 'Posilac' (rBGH)...and if that fails lets dig out the new GM weetieOs with the nano nitro genes...when the milk hits look out...we will rule the world...'cept we are going to be a whole lot lonely...just us and the FDA left to enjoy anything thats left. What if we make this world a better chemical place and nobody comes?
We need to find all the propagandists, spin doctors and lobbyists possible for Mother Nature if we want to turn these nano minds around.
RE: lobbyists of the empire...a must, read if you haven't already is:
John Perkin's books...especially....
CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HITMAN
...amazing exposé and polemic on the status quo...and who...what ....and why it continues...MONEY!
He names names, corporations and details ...and gives the behind the scene scoop from a a high level managing participant...who finally found his conscience....better late than never. What an embarrassment to the honest but duped American public who think their government is looking after them.
Ruben Ruiz
I have not read the books you listed by John Perkin but have heard him talk on "Democracy Now" with Amy Goodman. And yes, what an embarrasment for US here in the best democracy that money can buy and since the corporations and the 1%ers are the only one influencing our elected officials with their thousands of lobbyists the rest of us are just the consumer puppets of their profits like you stated. I myself served in the military for six years but had to get out as my conciousness could not bare how the all volunteer force is simply the US corporations private military. And you are right to point that better late than never for sure. I'm thankfull for having join the military as it open up my eyes to what's really going on from the inside of the military industrial complex, whan an education from the belly of the beast.
I just hope that more and more of the "honest but duped among US" begin to see the light if we are to aim to change the status quo. Thank you Colin for your wise words and please keep spreading such tragic truth to whoever is willing to listen if they are finally tired of being the consumer puppets of profits that "they" have molded US into. I'm even willing to assert that most people from outside the US can see or are the fallen victims of the US foreign policies that the corporations mandate in order to exploit foreign markets and whatever natural resources still exist outhere. And fresh water is now what oil has become for corporations, the next frontier of profit at the detriment of the world community.
Thank you again for your insighful comments.
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Colin K N A U F
I am in no way a Luddite...but boy do I sympathize with who they were and the value that they brought to the world with the Industrial Revolution. They made us all think a little harder (but not hard enough) about what we were doing.
First and most auspicious step we must take, is involving our women in the birth of our babies. When Mother nature is our midwife....outcomes are safer, happier, healthier and leaves the lawyers out of the loop and the take…along with all manner of other professions who use our medical model of industrial birth as their plump pension plan.
98% of babies are born in a hospital. (these stats are for North America…worse or better in other areas who imitate us.)
90% are drugged along with their mothers ( how else could you stand the mental evisceration and loss of control in YOUR child's birth.)
1 of every 3 children enter the world through a bloody hole in the mother's belly.
Their first view of the world is blurred with the blood of their mothers...the first thing they see is laser sharpened steel which sometimes misses its mark and leaves indelible marks in the body and psyche....(my son was born with a scar above his eye...from the needle of amniocentesis...luckily it missed his eye!)
This is very real Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and effects much greater than ⅓ of the population. ADHD, ADD and all the other disorders we see now but never saw several generations ago are the result of our birthing practices and the trickle down effect on breast feeding dysfunction, broken bonding of the mother baby dyad and further trickle down to a 65% divorce rate (lucky lawyers again).
If a baby is not breast fed it is not getting all the innate immunity boosters necessary to thrive…survive yes, often barely…but with horrendous baggage and health issues.
Just one simple ‘trickle down’ is the lack of the dynamic of hydraulics which a natural birth creates.
con't below....
Colin K N A U F
Many children have numerous respiratory problems resulting form amnionic fluid not being removed in the process of drugged high interventionist birth. Like so many things now we want it fast and easy. That imprint from birth of the ‘easy way out’ without struggle for survival impinges our health. Not unlike the parable of the butterfly and cocoon. ( http://syncogent.com/_/Dystocia_by_Design_Preview_files/Media/ME4g5p/ME4g5p.jpg?disposition=download )
Without a ‘mother bear’ bond, we fail to fall in love with our babies (really fall in love like this child is the future of the planet and our ultimate survival) and so we nurture at ‘arms length’. Without the bond the natural carry of the baby goes wanting. The vital physical contact with mother or significant other is essential for neural development and healthy endocrine function and myriad other bodily processes. One result of this is we have physically smaller brains than a century or so ago. The dominos keep tumbling after we knock the first over with a scalpel, tongs, vacuum pump or what ever heinous ejection/extraction machine or medicine we devise.
Just walking into a hospital shuts down labour for most women. Which normally is a good thing. It is a natural survival mechanism. But in a hospital thats when ‘delivery’ happens not birth. Not all women “fail to progress”, some are so confident, sure and educated about their bodies that they are able to push away the intervention when it has no value except for the bottom line. They are a rarity. Our fear mongering has turned women to unempowered consumers and tax payers rather than nature’s ‘mother bears’.
Many cultures scoff as us…how could you possibly leave with the wrong baby…don’t we know our babies? Apparently not.
vince vernile
However, I must point out that we are the ONLY species on the planet who EXPECT, ANTICIPATE and PLAN to live in it without supporting it...nothing else does, without their 'daily struggle to survive'.
My point of view' : 'Retirement' is bad for the planet, in every possible way.
We employ economic means to maintain our existence, long after we have stopped contributing to the daily grind.
Corporations, whether deemed 'good' or 'evil', compound this issue exponentially.
-If we had something akin to 'compound gardening' , as opposed to 'compound interest', the world would be safe from our economically destructive tendancies.
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Ruben Ruiz
Lillian Mackie
How does this hurt our communities, well it has an emotional effect on the people because they become stressed, unhappy, depressed they begin to suffer health issues and their families suffer as well. These employees may even lose their jobs because they aren't "cutting it" when in reality maybe the direction wasn't attainable in the first place.
As we are now experiencing in the US and in Europe our current economic model of growth is faltering and we need to come up with something new that benefits all people and entities not just large corporations. Our governments need to be accountable to the mass of citizens that elect them rather than the large corporations that dictate policy after all we are a democracy aren't we?
marshall dubaldo
russell lester
There was once a country called South Africa and it had a political system called Apertied. Apartied no longer exists.One very big reason was a boycott of all companies doing business with south africa
marshall dubaldo
(See www.movetoamend.org - a non-denominational site)
(from: www.poclad.com):
1st Amendment Free Speech rights. Corporations use these rights, meant to protect human beings from the power of the state, to influence elections through political "contributions" (more like "investments"); to advertise for guns, tobacco and other dangerous products over the objections of communities; to avoid having to label genetically modified foods.
* 4th Amendment Search and Seizure rights. Corporations have used these rights to avoid subpoenas for unlawful trade and price fixing, and to prevent citizens, communities and regulatory agencies from stopping corporate pollution and other assaults on people or the commons.
* 5th Amendment Takings, Double Jeopardy and Due Process corporate rights. Corporations must be compensated for property value lost (e.g. future profits) when regulations are established to protect homeowners or communities. Corporations cannot be retried after a judgment of acquittal in court. The granting of property to a corporation by a public official cannot be unilaterally revoked by a subsequent public official or Act of Congre
steve kuzara
http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/index.htm
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/water-footprint-calculator/
There are also corporate "green" accountability organizations that due cursory audits on corporate activities. If they could band together, establish a well defined audit methodology, establish a easy to understand accountability grading system, get a bill passed in congress where manufacturers/service providers are required to place their grade on their products/service... then consumers could make educated decisions on which companies they want to support.
http://www.accountabilityrating.com/
http://www.accountabilityrating.com/
Kevin Brian Carroll
Then, when that corporation has completely cratered - including every single one of its wholly owned subsidiaries - target the C-level executives and board members for public exposure, with a campaign aimed at these men and women to ensure that they don't parachute into the top tiers of other large corporations. This campaign should continue for at least two years after the execution of their company's extended enterprise.
Yes, this does sound radical, but if properly implemented, two - maybe three - large corporations, at most, would need to be obliterated before the rest of global capitalism would begin an effort to police itself, with an eye on survival by way of responsible corporate governance. The laid off employees would be needed by competitor companies when the large corporation and all its subsidiaries were eliminated from the supply-chain/OEM community. After all, product A is not that much different from product B, and if product A has been eliminated, then people will choose product B, or even try products C and D for a change. Product A's workers can fill those needs as demand increases.
Ruben Ruiz
Kevin Brian Carroll
I'll never understand a business that doesn't see its own white underbelly as being what it is. Then again, my C-level executive kid brother has always insisted that 80% of people in a corporate environment are barely capable of actually doing their jobs. Maybe sound judgment isn't all that common in the board room either.
Alan Kroeper
So, we must ensure that laws and regulations keep the societal good in mind, and the short term goals of corporate governance in check. But, there are ways to do this that are not in conflict with each other.
High tax rates force governance to keep capital within the organization, to reinvest it, to build upon the existing. If we allow folks to do otherwise, we deprive businesses of the opportunity (albeit forced...) to build upon existing technologies and grow for future opportunities.
marshall dubaldo
Corporations have gained many of the rights granted only to natural persons in the BIll of Rights. These rights have been granted by the courts, The Supreme Court being the primary one. Now, Corporations (particularly the Mega-corporations) have tremendous influence over many of our politicians, and thereby control our 'democracy'.
Over 75% of Republicans, Democrats and Independent voters polled wanted a Single-payer health care system. Why did this not ever get anywhere. You might want to look at who the lobbyists were and who was being lobbied.
Corporations can do what they do because they have the constitutional rights to do it.
Why isn't GMO food (Genetically Modified Food Organisms) labeled on our food? Over 95% of people polled want it - well, the Corporations have the right to 'NOT" speak - granted by decisions of the Supreme Court. (see www.movetoamend.org for more info)
The founding fathers were well aware of the dangers of corporations and were very wary of them. For many years legislative bodies would not allow the chartering of Corporations, except for limited amount of time and for a specific purpose. That has all been changed over time, by the Supreme Court.
Krisztián Pintér 100+
no, they actually don't. they answer on a poll that they want it, but it is not the case in the mall. it would be easy to buy the food that explicitly states it is GMO free. if that would be an advantage on the market, all products without GMO's would be labeled so, since it sells better. but it does not happen. and it does not happen because people actually don't care. they just want cheap products, and they want the products they like. people won't stop buying their favorite cereal or dairy products if they turn out to have GMO in it. GMO hysteria only exists in public opinion and media, but not in people's actual choices.
the marketplace is very precise in serving people's actual wants. it completely ignores their announced preferences.
Ruben Ruiz
heloise. obyrne
Ruben Ruiz
Tommy Bong
Final aim is maximization of influence and power, and of course profit. But simply it's not profit anymore cause corporations create enormous profits.
You just ruin the reputation of one big corporation and it's profit will enormously decrease or increase , depending on their PR. And of course the level of how politicians are immune to corruption. But politicians are corrupted, it's a fact. They all want only one thing - money and power.
And it's a fact that corporations buy their new statuses and buy whatever they want in the legal system.
Once the people will be mature on conscious level, corporations will no longer exist.
When or how it happens, very few would know.
Ruben Ruiz
But you are so right when you state that "once the poeple will be mature on a concious leve that corporations will no longer exist'. And this is what my attempt is, to start talking about this very sad and detrimental truth fo the sake of the world commuinities. Being aware of the problem is the first step and us discussing and talking about this is what needs to happen before we can begin to see the possibilites of what we can do to fight this issue.
Tommy Bong
Steve C
Flow: For the Love of Water says some pretty bad things about Nestle, I think.
You're on the internet, keep giving people your thoughts. Do more research, put that knowledge to use & change your own ways, & share these changes with your friends & family & neighbors.
Kill your t.v.
Cut back on unnecessary driving.
Stop eating red meat.
Cut down on using dirty electricity (including nuclear).
Ruben Ruiz
And thank you for pointing some good examples on what we can start doing to help deal with corporations. We make chices whenever we spend our money and this is wher we have a say in the matter no matter how small or insignificant it may seem, when being done by millions of people then corporations will listen.
Kathy Merrell
Ruben Ruiz
Erik Danziger
What can be done to stop this kind of corporate behaviour? The answer might be stronger international regulations to avoid such exploitation, BUT the problem here is not only a legal one, it's an ethical one. And besides, corporations have influence over hundreds, if not thousands of politicians around the world who will help to ensure a favourable outcome of those on whose payroll they are.
I sincerely doubt there is any VIABLE solution to this matter. I think we must wait until this system fails and collapses from inside, because only then MAYBE they will have learnt the lesson.
Ruben Ruiz
And this system of doing business as usual does in fact need to fail from within before we can really hope to find any viable solutions. And it does seem that this is already happening to some degree and more and more people are becoming aware of this unsustainable and dirty way of doing business as usual that corporations and their puppet world govenments keep telling us is the only way when is NOT.
russell lester
Who makes up a corporation? Employees and their families management and theirs stockholders and theirs and the consumers and theirs plus the people whose banks have loaned them money and on and on.
Do you have and IRA or other mutual fund or stock account?
Does your money sit in an account drawing interest?
What is your money invested in?
What Corporations are you calling them that might be you?
Granted the power and abuse available to the people who are running corperations is to great but who do you think that power comes from if its not you?
Do you all who chastise corporations boycott their goods and services?
Not work for them?
Understand I think what corperations are doing is criminal and terrible, but unlike you it seems, I accept that that makes me a terrible and criminal person until I can make it right. Its not them its me. and its not just me, its all of you.
Roger Gay
Random Chance
Let's not fight for our rights, which are really our needs.
jejomar bargoza
but i heard of something in australia that the government or parliament there is rising the tax of the big corporations.The main goal is to rise the tax for the corporations so that they wont be able to buy much/more or destroy natural resources.
the only solution is unity within us humans,including the big guys.
Ruben Ruiz
ralph haulk
In the US, cproprations were rejected by the founders of the Constitution, and Jefferson advocated that we destroy in its infancy the "aristocracy of the moneyed corporation". Corporations were NOT approved by the founders. When Madison, Wilson, and franklin tried to develop a federal corporation for "internal improvements" the congress quickly votd it down. Civil law was to have no authority over common law. Since corporations were produicts of civil law and christened or baptized into common law, the power to cntrol corporations was to be kept within state auithority, and there was no power to declare it a person, except by authority of the king, and that authority was rejected by the colonists. There is nothing in the onstitution granting corporations the status of "personhood", nor can there be, since no such authority was ever transferred from the king to any branch of state government.
This means that the "due process" clause of the 5th and 14th amendments can not refer to corporations, nor grant protection of due process to corporations, since there is no authority whatever given to them as persons. What tis further means is that persons within communities have due process protection against corporate power, but this is ignored by SCOTUS.
Thomas Anderson
It seems that there are many organizations, agencies, and individuals trying to prevent harm, but not enough actually working together...yet. I agree that you are on the mark. Also, I wish we could move to more advanced kinds of energy, so that we do not have to burn things anymore.
blanca costa
One Moment for example, a new project that offers ecologic shoes, is a great example for it!
Knowing how indians protected their feet, this company has created new shoes that not only respect our environment, while spreading the word of "respect" to the world, but leads a trend that other many companies will join in a short term future.
In www.universoprofesional.com we have dedicated a hole post to talk about this great initiative!
Linda Taylor 10+
Max Gutapfel
(first you need to get us to fight, and those here on ted are fighting ... in some way)
Before we can start to actually fight we need to change our values away from this materialistic view.
Then the time might come where people stand up and fight, today such companys (which are at least the largest companies) just get too much support by westerns (rich = western, europe and america, in this case at least) which are happy to be able to get theyr "stuff" for low prices and which are unaware that theyre actually supporting the exploitation of third world countrys.
Well thats at least my opinion.
russell lester
The bad news is the most likely answer to this problem relies on the people (you and I) to be so involved informed thoughtful and deliberate that it will become the main part of our daily lives this exercise of responsibility. I am afraid we would quickly build some construct where we ceded this task to others for us and be right back where we are. The fundamental change in the world must be you, and of course me.
Ruben Ruiz
But do agree with you that it is up to us, you and I and everyone else who sees a stake in this battle, to fight and try to organize in some way to put and end to it. And this is where the problem lies, in that most of us don't see things for what they really are and therefore don't feel the personal stake in the challenge. Thank you for your insight and participation, I really appreciate and value your opinion.
russell lester
Krisztián Pintér 100+
russell lester
Ruben Ruiz
russell lester
Ruben Ruiz
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Krisztián Pintér 100+
another way to look at it is any tool has a function. a ladder also has one, it does some things well, but it is really bad at other things. a company is good at making money. that is, a company's function is to transform capital goods to other goods in an efficient manner.
but it still does not have responsibility. how could it be? it can not be punished. it can not be argued with. it does not make choices. only board members or owners do. they bear full responsibility for their own actions. how could they not? can they argue that they only made those choices as board members, as not as human beings? or they can say if they hadn't done it, someone else would have? these are not valid arguments.
Krisztián Pintér 100+
another example is a car. is the car responsible for anything? yet we still can say that a car is dangerous, it can kill, it can run over things, etc. but it is metaphorical of some sort. actually, we understand that not the car, but the driver is responsible.