Up until now a person could only write, or better, give their views on the consequences of unfretted capitalism (cowboy capitalism). Even though you could give analogies, such as the damage the health insurance companies are doing to our society, nevertheless, people just seem not to comprehend. However, the catastrophe in the gulf coast and the unprecedented destruction it is doing to our economic and eco systems has to be a clear correlation to how unfretted capitalism is devastating our society and environment.
No one would seriously suggest that individuals should regulate themselves, that laws against murder, assault, and theft are unnecessary because people are socially responsible. Yet oddly, we are asked to believe that corporate persons - institutional psychopaths who lack any sense of moral conviction and who have the power and motivation to cause harm and devastation in the world - should be left to govern themselves.
Corporations seem to have no capacity and their executives no authority, to act out of a genuine sense of responsibility to society, to avoid causing harm to people and the environment, or to work to advance the public good in ways that are unrelated to their self-interest. The corporation, like the psychopathic personality it resembles, is programmed to exploit others for profit. They are institutions which by law have really only one mission, and that is to increase shareholder profit. Corporations must be concerned only for their stockholders and - not the community or the environment.
As an example of this insanity let's consider the six-month moratorium our government put on deep water exploratory drilling in our costal waters. On Tuesday, the six-month moratorium imposed by President Barack Obama was blocked by Federal Judge Martin Feldman, who should never have heard the case in the first place. Feldman has intimate ties to the industry; as recently as 2008 - the most recent year on record - he owned stock in Transocean, whose Deepwater Horizon rig operated by BP exploded and burned April 20 and continues to spew millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf. He also owned stock in Haliburton and 20 other oil and gas companies. Is he concerned about his stock-holdings?
This process has accelerated dramatically in the last half-century, as the value of the stock market has increased over a hundredfold. But in the same period, forests have shrunk, water tables have fallen, wetlands have disappeared, soils have eroded, fisheries have collapsed, rivers have run dry, global temperatures have risen, and countless plant and animal species have disappeared. No doubt, the catastrophe in the gulf coast and the unprecedented destruction it is doing to its economic and eco systems has to be a clear correlation to how unfretted capitalism is devastating our society and environment. Yet, Republican Senators such as Joe Barton, Steve King, and Michelle Bachman are apologizing to BP for the way they are being treated by our government. Where is the sanity?
