Friday, August 14, 2009

***Corporate Interest / Greed

Democracy Now recently had a segment on C Street and the "Family" (fundamentalist political power brokers). One of the things that came up was the idea that the "Family" saw Capitalism as "God" taking his course. Government was seen as intervention/disruption to "God"s plan.

The facts of the matter are that, in general, corporations working for the interest of the people in power unfortunately ignore what is in the public interest. So it's not in the monetary interest of the corporation to pay for the health care of those with "Pre-existing conditions" or to worry about polluting or their contribution to global warming.

But people working in government (when they aren't focused on being "rewarded" by corporations) can consider causes and effects more objectively. They can consider the ethics and consequences outside of the profit motive.

The reason why corporations that provide healthcare to their employees includes those with "Pre-existing conditions" is because the government requires it. The corporations get some sort of tax break. Of course employees with too many health problems may not be able to work and would lose their healthcare - and would have to pay an exorbitant amount - if they managed to have insurance at all.

I don't know where the "Family" got the idea that people in corporations are somehow noble - following what "God" wants while people in government are all corrupt. There are examples of bad governments - but there are plenty examples of bad corporations, also.

There are plenty of examples where Corporations are only as ethical as they are required by the Government to be.

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