The 'Share the Scraps' Economy

Robert Reich was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration. He is an economist, who believes government and public policy should serve the broad interests of the American people.

Reich has become one of the most important voices opposing the sell out of our government to big corporations and the super rich.  This article focuses on the collapse of the middle class, driven by the loss of living wage jobs.   



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Robert Reich: Why Work Is Turning Into a Nightmare

By Robert Reich         

February 3, 2015

How would you like to live in an economy where robots do everything that can be predictably programmed in advance, and almost all profits go to the robots' owners?

Meanwhile, human beings do the work that's unpredictable - odd jobs, on-call projects, fetching and fixing, driving and delivering, tiny tasks needed at any and all hours - and patch together barely enough to live on.
Brace yourself. This is the economy we're now barreling toward.
They're Uber [3] drivers, Instacart [4] shoppers, and Airbnb [5] hosts. They include Taskrabbit [6] jobbers, Upcounsel [7]'s on-demand attorneys, and Healthtap [8]'s on-line doctors.
They're Mechanical Turks [9].
The euphemism is the "share" economy [10]. A more accurate term would be the "share-the-scraps" economy.
New software technologies are allowing almost any job to be divided up into discrete tasks that can be parceled out to workers when they're needed, with pay determined by demand for that particular job at that particular moment.
Customers and workers are matched online. Workers are rated on quality and reliability.
The big money goes to the corporations that own the software. The scraps go to the on-demand workers.
Consider Amazon's "Mechanical Turk." Amazon calls it "a marketplace for work that requires human intelligence [11]."
In reality, it's an Internet job board offering minimal pay for mindlessly-boring bite-sized chores. Computers can't do them because they require some minimal judgment, so human beings do them for peanuts -- say, writing a product description, for $3; or choosing the best of several photographs, for 30 cents; or deciphering handwriting, for 50 cents.
Amazon takes a healthy cut of every transaction.
This is the logical culmination of a process that began thirty years ago when corporations began turning over full-time jobs to temporary workers, independent contractors, free-lancers, and consultants.
It was a way to shift risks and uncertainties onto the workers - work that might entail more hours than planned for, or was more stressful than expected.
And a way to circumvent labor laws that set minimal standards for wages, hours, and working conditions. And that enabled employees to join together to bargain for better pay and benefits.
The new on-demand work shifts risks entirely onto workers, and eliminates minimal standards completely.
In effect, on-demand work is a reversion to the piece work of the nineteenth century - when workers had no power and no legal rights, took all the risks, and worked all hours for almost nothing.
Uber drivers [12] use their own cars, take out their own insurance, work as many hours as they want or can - and pay Uber a fat percent [13]. Worker safety? Social Security? Uber says it's not the employer so it's not responsible.
Amazon's Mechanical Turks work for pennies, literally. Minimum wage? Time-and-a half for overtime? Amazon says it just connects buyers and sellers so it's not responsible.
Defenders of on-demand work emphasize its flexibility. Workers can put in whatever time they want, work around their schedules, fill in the downtime in their calendars.
"People are monetizing their own downtime," says [14] Arun Sundararajan, a professor at New York University's business school.
But this argument confuses "downtime" with the time people normally reserve for the rest of their lives.
There are still only twenty-four hours in a day. When "downtime" is turned into work time, and that work time is unpredictable and low-paid, what happens to personal relationships? Family? One's own health?
Other proponents of on-demand work point to studies, such as one recently commissioned by Uber [15], showing Uber's on-demand workers to be "happy [15]."
But how many of them would be happier with a good-paying job offering regular hours?
An opportunity to make some extra bucks can seem mighty attractive in an economy whose median wage has been stagnant for thirty years and almost all of whose economic gains have been going to the top.
That doesn't make the opportunity a great deal. It only shows how bad a deal most working people have otherwise been getting.
Defenders also point out that as on-demand work continues to grow, on-demand workers are joining together in guild-like groups [16] to buy insurance and other benefits.
But, notably, they aren't using their bargaining power to get a larger share of the income they pull in, or steadier hours. That would be a union - something that Uber, Amazon, and other on-demand companies don't want.
Some economists laud on-demand work as a means of utilizing people moreefficiently [17].
But the biggest economic challenge we face isn't using people more efficiently. It's allocating work and the gains from work more decently.
On this measure, the share-the-scraps economy is hurtling us backwards.
 

                          

    

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Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/robert-reich-why-work-turning-nightmare

Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/robert-reich-0
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] https://get.uber.com/cl/?city_name=san-francisco&utm_source=AdWords_Brand&utm_campaign=search%7Cc%7Cdrivers%7Csan-francisco%7Ccountry-1%7Ccity-1%7Ckeyword_Uber%7Cmatchtype_e%7Cad_69616707880%7Ccampaign_brand%7Cgroup_uber%3eexact%7Cnetwork_g&utm_medium=kenid_ce47600c-ca8d-4f0f-b00c-08e02d402eae&gclid=CKyr5vTiw8MCFRBgfgodXYkAMw
[4] https://www.instacart.com/
[5] https://www.airbnb.com/?af=1922719&c=A_TC%3Dm84nccm9s3%26G_MT%3De%26G_CR%3D22111491256%26G_N%3Dg%26G_K%3Dairbnb%26G_P%3D&gclid=CJ-vgajjw8MCFQZafgod24cACA
[6] https://www.taskrabbit.com/careers
[7] https://www.upcounsel.com/home/careers
[8] https://www.healthtap.com/prime-trial?AG=HealthTap&CN=%5BUI%5D_-_%5BBrand%5D_-_%5BUS%5D_-_%28Exact%29&gclid=CPvpldnjw8MCFZSPfgodFzsA8A&pubcode=GA&referrer=ppc&type=Search&v=5
[9] https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome
[10] http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21573104-internet-everything-hire-rise-sharing-economy
[11] http://aws.amazon.com/mturk/
[12] http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-drivers-across-the-country-are-protesting-tomorrow--heres-why-2014-10
[13] http://www.wsj.com/articles/ubers-new-funding-values-it-at-over-41-billion-1417715938
[14] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/29/technology/personaltech/uber-a-rising-business-model.html?_r=0
[15] http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120832/uber-study-uber-drivers-are-happy-uber
[16] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/29/technology/personaltech/uber-a-rising-business-model.html
[17] http://blogs.microsoft.com/work/2013/11/12/the-mobile-workforce-more-productive-efficient-and-healthy/
[18] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Robert Reich: Why Work Is Turning Into a Nightmare
[19] http://www.alternet.org/
[20] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B

Planetary

This is a new video production, that focuses on Earth citizenship. It features many astronauts that have served aboard the International Space Station, or as astronauts on the now retired, space shuttle.

Paul Hawken, one of my most influential teachers, is an executive producer on the Planetary video. For decades, Hawken has been a noble agitator, working to build critical mass in activism to serve the one home we must all share, planet Earth. 

Planetary is a very powerful video entertainment. It confronts every person with the obligation he or she has to nurture and protect the Earth.  It shows us the pathway we must all follow if we are to transcend the unprecedented tangle of global scale social, economic, and environmental challenges that threaten life on every continent.

Here is a link to a very compelling trailer for Planetary... http://weareplanetary.com/

Climate and the Constitution

My colleagues are I recently completed work on a short outreach video that features the Chairperson of 350PDX, Adriana Voss-Andreae, MD/PhD, telling her climate warrior troops that a critical piece of the solution for climate restoration is a Constitutional Amendment that will nullify corporate personhood and end money being treated as speech. 

Adrian does a masterful job of making the case for a 28th Constructional Amendment.  Now, we hope the video will add to the grassroots movement already pressing for Constitutional change.

Here is a link to Climate and the Constitution...  https://vimeo.com/115086397

American Exceptionalism

It's amazing to me that so many Americans continue to buy into the myth that because of our citizenship, we are better than everybody else.  This is not a new idea. When white Europeans began immigrating to the American continent,  they carried with them a religious construct known as manifest destiny. In essence, they believed they were superior in every way to the indigenous peoples that have populated this continent for thousands of years.  They used this cultural and religious meme to justify the forced displacement of native Americans from the land they had traditionally occupied. Millions of Indians suffered and died in the process.

This ugly sense of superiority is still a part of the American brand. We are constantly sold the idea that Americans are exceptional compared to the rest of the world. Too many of us, way too many, buy into this self-absorbed perception. The reality: if we are exceptional, it must be based on the amount of arrogance and self-delusion that we harbor compared to the rest of the world.

My Message to the Billionaire Ruling Class

Hey, congratulations, rich guys. You’ve made more money than you could possibly ever spend. Most of you are content with that, but a few of you are not. Some of you, instead of using your money to do good deeds and champion genuine progress,  are way off in the opposite direction. By that I mean using your wealth and power to force your self-centered worldview on the rest of us.

The truth is most billionaires - in fact most people who have more than a million or two in assets - are not part of the political hardball being played by a small group of bankers, corporatists, and billionaire psychopaths who behave like greedy thugs.

Being rich is a wonderful thing for those who are grateful for their good fortune, and are willing to give high priority to the common good.  Wealth also offers those who are so blessed an opportunity to be leaders and heroes, who want a future for the Earth that is worthy of our species.

The Gates Foundation, in the name of Bill and Melinda Gates, and to a lesser extent Warren Buffet, has applied billions of dollars to some of the world’s most pressing problems.  But even Bill and Warren, with all the good that they do, are playing both ends against the middle.  Both are substantially invested in the continued massive consumption of coal and oil.  

Journalist Naomi Klein’s most recent book, This Changes Everything, exposes the dualistic thinking that certain high profile billionaires keep hidden behind their polished public images.  They may genuinely want clean skies and a healthy biosphere, but the record shows they are not willing to give up profitable revenue streams from investments that foster our continued dependence on dirty fossil energy.

Too many wealthy people are content to sit on the political sidelines and collect their fat profits, while the economic and culturally corrosive public policy promoted by the worst of their billionaire neighbors makes everybody that already has big money even more rich, even more separate and unequal from the rest of us.

In fact, the real political evil emerges from a very small number of wealthy people.   Almost all the worst offenders are old.  Almost all are politically conservative men, who very much believe in white power and privilege. They aggressively use their wealth and influence to buy politicians and manipulate the American political process, with the intent to maximize their personal interests. I don’t suppose there is much of anything that I or anyone else could say that could turn that small band of big money evildoers in a more benevolent direction. They are simply indifferent to the consequences of their pathological actions.

But there is hope for the vast majority of millionaires and billionaires, who are not hopelessly self-absorbed.  Here’s my message to those wealthy folks, who recognize that they are not immune to the consequences of all the unprecedented, deeply unsettling, global scale challenges humanity must deal with.  I’m talking about climate change and fossil fuel dependence. I’m talking about our reckless, abjectly corrupt, and massively dysfunctional political process.  I’m talking about the human-driven shredding of the biosphere, whose finite water and living resources are being overwhelmed by the demands of seven billion plus human beings. We have made an Earth-sized mess of things.  Humanity and nature are near a breaking point of unprecedented scale.  Every human being has an obligation to get serious about this. Whether you’re a billionaire or an indigenous person, terrified and brutalized by illegal loggers in your forest, you have a life-and-death stake in what happens to this planet. 

To all fundamentally good and decent Americans who happen to be rich, and also happen to be passive or indifferent to our broken political process, I say, time to wake up.  You might think you can escape the consequences of your inaction. Don’t count on it.   History has shown that when the privileged members of a society stand by passively and watch the masses sink, the rabble tend to rise up. They focus their rage and demands for retribution on people of privilege, reserving their greatest ire for those who have shown no compassion for their suffering.  I’m not just talking about the oppressors. I’m talking about those who turned a blind eye to the process of oppression.

In 1794, during the French Revolution, Antoine Lavoiser, who is remembered historically for his contributions to science, was guillotined because he made his living as a tax collector for the ruling class.  The same dynamic that resulted in Lavosier losing his head applies today. Being on the losing side of a life and death, cultural struggle can be a fatal mistake.

Getting on the morally correct, and very likely, the winning side of history, requires making yourself part of the solution.  It is not acceptable to sit by passively while a handful of bad billionaires use their wealth to ruin our environment and tear society apart in the name of profit. End of story.

Nature's Trust

Written by University of Oregon Law Professor, Mary Christina Wood, Nature's Trust provides a thoroughly researched review of the trust responsibility of government at all levels in America, to the people and to future generations.

Here is how Professor Wood puts that responsibility in the introduction of Nature's Trust.

The sovereign trust obligation offers a catalyzing principle to citizens worldwide in their common struggle to hold government's accountable for protecting life-systems. Nature's Trust and the primordial rights inculcating it create a populist manifesto that surfaces at epic times through the generations of humanity. These principles stand no less revolutionary for our time and our crises than the forcing of the Magna Carta on the English monarchy in 1215 or Mahatma Gandhi's great Salt March to the sea in 1930.  Resonating deeply and resolutely within the ancestral memory of humanity,  trust principles must now revive to stir a global assertion of citizenship in defense of humanity and all future generations.

Professor Mary Christina Wood has done an enormous service to society by reminding us how deeply entrenched the trust responsibility is in global governance.  We live in a time when the American political process has devolved in a circumstance of  'He who has the money makes the rules.'  Climate change, driven by the human addiction to dirty coal and oil, is a challenge that is not being addressed, primarily because of the failure of our elected representatives to recognize and live up to their trust responsibilities to the people and to future generations.

Trust law is no panacea. The best way to put government back on track would be a Constitutional Amendment that says, 'Corporations are not People' and 'Money is not Speech'.   That's a very tough nut to crack. For now, Mary Christina Wood's  illumination of  natural trust law has inspired a number of court challenges, demanding a proper government response to climate change.  Nature's Trust provides a solid foundation for legal remedy against our government's failure to meet it's obligation to protect nature and the commons for future generations.

This is a very important book. I give it my highest recommendation, with one caveat. The price tag - $40 for a paperback book - creates an unfortunate accessibility problem. I would love to have Nature's Trust for reference in my own library. Perhaps, at some point, they will come out with a different edition at a more reasonable cost.  For now, when I need to visit this book, I will go to the library.

Here is a link to author Mary Christina Wood, appearing on the Bill Moyers PBS Show, talking about Nature's Trust...  http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-climate-crusade/

America Has a White Millennial Problem

This is a very interesting and somewhat troubling picture of young adult America. I don't think the polls are presenting an accurate picture of where most of millennials are politically. I think young people want clean air, reproductive freedom of choice,  and a biosphere that is protected from brutish exploitation by mindless profiteers. 

Maybe young people aren't polling so strongly for Democrats because they recognize that the Democratic Party is part of the problem.  What they want is a progressive alternative that is forward thinking, life-affirming, and sustainable.  To get that, the corruption that is pervasive in American politics must stop.  We need a 28th Amendment that says 'Corporations are not People' and 'Money is not Speech'.  That is the way to energize millennials. Give them a worthy pathway into the future..EMPDX.

Sean McElwee wrote this piece for AlterNet. Nice work Sean...

Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)

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Salon [1] / By Sean McElwee [2]          

 

December 17, 2014  | 

 

Nearly anytime Democrats lose an election, there is a pervasive narrative that, just around the bend, there will be an “emerging Democratic majority.” Originally projected to occur between [3] 2004 and 2008, it now appears further away than ever after last month’s midterm blowout. Republicans have a stranglehold on the House, where they control [4] their largest number of seats since 1948. That lead will be incredibly tough [5] to chip away at. Democratic chances of regaining the Senate in 2016, once considered a near certainty, are looking iffy [6]. Republicans control 31 governorships, as well as [7] 68 of 98 state legislative chambers. Democrats still have a strong chance of winning the Presidency, but given the importance of the states for shaping income distribution [8] and policy [9], even that victory will ring hollow.

Yet again, the Democratic Party faces bleak governing prospects in the short term, with only the nebulous promise of a demographic windfall somewhere off in the future — and even that prospect should be little comfort to progressives. While the “millennial” generation has widely been seen as the key to future of Democratic successes, there are reasons to believe that the liberalism of millennials, at least on certain key issues, has been overstated.

 

Yes, there is a strong case that younger voters on the whole are more liberal. For instance, a study by the Center for American Progress finds [10] that while the mean American’s ideological position is 209 (with 0 being most conservative and 400 being most progressive), those under 29 score 219.7 (Obama voters scored 244).  But while millennials are more socially liberal across the board, there are stark racial divides on economic issues. Younger voters are more likely than older voters to agree [11] with the statement, “Labor unions are necessary to protect the working person” and “the government should be doing more to solve problems.” These questions, however, are rather vague and positively worded. And other data suggest a large gap between white millenials and millenials of color. For instance, young white men [12] supported Romney in the 2012 election.
White millenials are also significantly less [11] supportive of Obama (54 percent) than black millenials (95 percent) and Hispanic millenials (76 percent). The most recent poll [13] of Obama finds that young whites and older whites have virtually identical approval ratings. A recent Pew survey of millennials finds [14] that on economic issues, there are strong gaps between young whites and young non-white millenials (see chart).
[15]
On social issues, however [14], these gaps are virtually non-existent. This suggests that while social liberalism will continue to be a political winner, economic liberalism may be tougher to sell to white millenials. Additionally, while white millenials say they [16] want to live in a racially equitable society, they are no more likely than their parents [17] to support policies to make that society come about. ”At the same time, whites [18] primed [19] with the reality of growing diversity become are less likely to say they support diversity and more likely to support the Republican party.”
Furthermore, even as minorities make up a larger and larger percentage of the electorate, these racial changes will not inevitably benefit Democrats. While Republicans have never won more than 40 percent of the Latino vote  – the claim  [20]that Bush won 44 percent in 2004, as widely reported, now appears to have been incorrect — they could do so in the future. Pew data, for example, show [21] that third generation Hispanics are more socially liberal, but more economically conservative than older Hispanics.
[22]
Additionally, a recent Gallup poll shows [13] support for Obama among younger Black Americans is modestly lower than support among their older counterparts. This actually hold strue among millenials as a whole; as there appear to be age gaps that would render the Democratic advantage ephemeral. Harvard’s Institute of Politics finds [23] that there is a distinct difference between the way young millenials (18-to-24) and older millenials (25-to-29) view Obama. Meanwhile, a 2012 American University poll finds [24] that college students in swing states supported Obama by 35 points, while high schoolers (13-to-17) in swing states supported Obama over Romney by only 7 points.
Discussing the future always presents challenges, particularly in the realm of politics. However, when we look at the ideologies that shape the parties, we can see a few general trends from these data. First, the economic liberalism of the millenial generation appears to be driven primarily by people of color [25], rather than by younger, more liberal whites. (On social issues, the generation appears to be more liberal across the board.) Second, while millenials lean Democratic, they are still effectively up for grabs. White millenials, the data show, may become suspicious of further government programs to advance racial equality, and young people of color may be open to a Republican party that eschews virulent racism. Finally, electoral structures combined with the geographic locations [26] of Democratic voters will bias the system toward Republicans for at least another decade, and possibly longer.
It’s difficult to know what parties will do to remain viable in a shifting American political landscape. However, it’s by no means certain that a new “Democratic majority” will be an economically liberal one. It’s plausible that the new Democratic party will embrace an Andrew Cuomo-esque neoliberalism. The Democratic party that appears to be emerging will be friendlier to finance and economically conservative, but also very socially liberal, particularly on gay marriage and women’s rights. The Democratic party will be committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions but not at a terrible price to businesses. Public goods will be sold off at bargain basement prices and the safety net will be expanded only slowly, if at all. Both parties will pretend that racial grievances are a thing of the past and present a rosy vision of color-blind America. The ideological distance of both parties on foreign policy will remain where it is today: virtually indistinguishable. This is not inevitable, but what we know about millenials, particularly white ones, suggest this is the most plausible scenario. In the battle for the soul of the Democratic party, millenials might not be on Team Elizabeth Warren.

 

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Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/america-has-white-millennial-problem

Links:
[1] http://www.salon.com
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/sean-mcelwee
[3] https://twitter.com/SeanMcElwee/status/542835205548310528
[4] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/12/09/in-the-states-the-gop-is-in-its-best-position-since-the-great-depression/
[5] http://cookpolitical.com/story/8123
[6] http://www.nationalreview.com/article/393732/will-democrats-take-back-senate-2016-michael-barone
[7] http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/11/11/the_other_gop_wave_state_legislatures__124626.html
[8] http://web.utk.edu/~nkelly/papers/inequality/KellyWitko.pdf
[9] http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/412635-state-approaches-to-the-tanf-block-grant.pdf
[10] http://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2009/03/pdf/political_ideology.pdf
[11] http://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2009/05/pdf/millennial_generation.pdf
[12] http://www.people-press.org/2012/11/26/young-voters-supported-obama-less-but-may-have-mattered-more/
[13] http://www.gallup.com/poll/179921/obama-loses-support-among-white-millennials.aspx
[14] http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/03/07/chapter-2-generations-and-issues/
[15] http://www.salon.com/2014/12/14/americas_white_millennial_problem_why_the_next_great_generation_might_not_be_a_liberal_one/millennial_1/
[16] https://www.evernote.com/shard/s4/sh/5edc56c3-f8c8-483f-a459-2c47192d0bb8/a0ba0ce883749f4e613d6a6338bb4455
[17] http://poq.oxfordjournals.org/content/73/5/917.abstract
[18] http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/04/02/0956797614527113.abstract
[19] http://spp.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/08/13/1948550614546355
[20] http://www.pewhispanic.org/2005/06/27/hispanics-and-the-2004-election/
[21] http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/04/04/v-politics-values-and-religion/
[22] http://www.salon.com/2014/12/14/americas_white_millennial_problem_why_the_next_great_generation_might_not_be_a_liberal_one/screen_shot_2014_12_12_at_8_55_48_pm/
[23] http://iop.harvard.edu/blog/iop-releases-new-fall-poll-5-key-findings-and-trends-millennial-viewpoints#sthash.Yk1PMHLA.dpuf.
[24] http://www.american.edu/media/news/20121101_poll_obama_romney.cfm
[25] http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/11/19/midterm_demographics_didnt_sink_the_democrats_124701.html
[26] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/upshot/why-democrats-cant-win.html
[27] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on America Has a White Millennial Problem
[28] http://www.alternet.org/tags/race
[29] http://www.alternet.org/tags/millennials
[30] http://www.alternet.org/tags/economy-0
[31] http://www.alternet.org/tags/generation
[32] http://www.alternet.org/tags/republican-0
[33] http://www.alternet.org/tags/democrat
[34] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B






 

A Few Things That Suck

Here, we have another Earthmanpdx video. This one focuses on some of the things that are wrong in America, and about a Constitutional amendment as the best way to get our nation back on  a course that puts the public interest ahead of corporations, bankers,  and self-absorbed billionaires. 

The link is https://vimeo.com/113999042

At the end of the day, the way out of the mess we are in is to support www.movetoamend.org

Sordid Tales of Selfishness

I detest the 'I got mine, so fuck you' attitude reflected in self-absorbed, money-driven sociopathy.

Most people who have multi-million dollar bank accounts didn't get that way from being smarter, or working harder than everybody else. More than a few were born into good fortune. Some got rich from nurturing a great idea. The guys at Google come to mind. But, most of those people who have become part of the top one percent over the last forty or so years did it by being takers....ruthlessly determined to use every advantage to elevate themselves... stepping on anyone or anything in the way, without regard to consequences.

I want to be clear. Being rich doesn't make you evil. There are many wealthy people who are deeply compassionate, and are open in their concern for nature and their fellow human residents of Earth,  Having a big bank account is not a bad thing,  Unfortunately, too many, way too many of the one percenters  are all about themselves. They share a worldview characterized by callous indifference, even outright hostility to those they dismiss as the rabble.

The article below comes from the AlterNet website.  I feel sorry for the kind of people it describes.  Being selfish is not pretty. I'm not suggesting that taking nothing at all is a good example either. We are all born with the right to do as Spock espouses, 'To live long, and prosper'.  Being prosperous doesn't include the right to harm the biosphere and roll over other people.

I believe that joy comes to those who find ways to nurture and give back, when fortune smiles on them. You don't have to be religious to agree that 'it is better to give, than to receive'.

___________________________

Four Sordid Tales of Selfishness of the Super-Rich

 by Paul Buchheit          

 

AlterNet, November 16, 2014  |  

If the mainstream media made the effort to analyze and report the facts, the whole country would know about a level of selfishness that has spiraled out of control since the economists of the Reagan era convinced the wealthiest Americans that greed is good for everyone. Here are four extreme examples of that selfishness.

1. Ebola's Not Worth the Money If Only Africans Get Infected

World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Dr. Margaret Chan recently stated [3]: "Ebola emerged nearly four decades ago. Why are clinicians still empty-handed, with no vaccines and no cure? Because Ebola has historically been confined to poor African nations. The R&D incentive is virtually non-existent. A profit-driven industry does not invest in products for markets that cannot pay."

So we turn to philanthropy. But rich donors don't compensate for the flaws of capitalism. The Gates Foundation, among others, may appear noble and praiseworthy for all its charitable giving, but Dr. Chan noted [4] that "My budget [is] highly earmarked, so it is driven by what I call donor interests." Little of that 'earmarking' is toward diseases of the poor. A study in The Lancet [5] of medical products registered in 2000-11 revealed that "Only four new chemical entities were approved for neglected diseases (three for malaria, one for diarrhoeal disease), accounting for 1% of the 336 new chemical entities approved during the study period."

A related problem with philanthropy is summarized [6] by Stacy Palmer, editor of The Chronicle of Philanthropy: "Wealthy people tend to give to colleges, art museums, opera and hospitals very generously...Food banks depend more on lower income Americans."

The Chronicle of Philanthropy [7] confirmed that Americans with annual earnings under $100,000 increased their post-recession giving by 4.5 percent. Americans who earned over $200,000 reduced their giving by 4.6 percent over the same time period.

2. Going To Their Graves Without Paying What They Owe

Charles Koch, who is very much alive, said "I want my fair share - and that's all of it."

His dream is coming true. $30 trillion [8] has been taken since the recession [9], most of it financial gains [10], almost all of it [11] by the richest 1%, one-hundred thousand of whom made an estimated $18 million [12] each in three years, and most of whom are so rich that they can let their portfolios sit nearly tax-free until they die, at which point an almost non-existent estate tax ensures nearly tax-free [13] fortunes for their fortunate sons and daughters (only about one out of a thousand [14] estates are taxed).

Yet these are the people who benefit most from national security, infrastructure, tax laws, and patent and copyright laws. They're protected by police who stop and frisk and harass and arrest anyone who threatens the status quo of their wealthy society. But they don't want to pay for all the benefits, even after they're dead.

3. Inventing Rules That Take Money from the Poor

A collection of contrived laws and policies effectively transfer money from the middle class to the rulemakers:

---Capital Gains [15]: Pay less for just owning stocks

---Carried Interest [16]: The astonishing claim that hedge fund profits are not regular income

---Payroll Tax [17]: Multi-millionaires pay a tiny percentage compared to middle-income earners

---Roth IRAs [18]: A tax loophole [19] for the 20% of Americans who own 95 percent [20] of the financial wealth

---Derivatives [21]: Risky financial instruments are the first to be paid off in a bank collapse

---Bankruptcies [22]: Businesses can get out of debt, students can't

4. Treating Less Fortunate People As If They Don't Exist

Compelling research [23] by Paul Piff [24] and his colleagues has demonstrated that the accumulation of wealth leads to a sense of entitlement and qualities of narcissism. For example, rich people are more likely to flout traffic laws, to take items of value from others, and to cheat when necessary to win a prize or position.

At a higher level, irrefutable data [25] has been accumulated [26] to confirm [27] the relentless flow of money [28] away from our most vulnerable citizens:

Children: One out of every five American children lives in poverty [29], and for black children under the age of six it's nearly one out of TWO [30]. Almost half of food stamp recipients [31] are children. Worldwide, 76 million children [32] are living in poverty in the developed world, and hundreds of millions more in the developing world.

The Elderly: Three-quarters [33] of Americans approaching retirement in 2010 had an average of less than $30,000 [34] to support them in their retirement years.

The Homeless: According to The Nation [35], there are now more homeless people in New York City than at any time since the 1970s, and the number of homeless schoolchildren is at an all-time high.

The Sick and Disabled: Over 200 recent studies [36] have confirmed a link between financial stress and sickness. In just 20 years America's ranking among developed countries dropped [37] on nearly every major health measure.


Privileged people, oblivious to the realities beneath their lofty positions, talk about struggling Americans getting "comfortable" [38] in poverty, using food stamps to buy expensive food [38], and resting in the "hammock" [39] of the safety net. Perhaps delusion helps them to rationalize their selfishness. 

 

---

Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/economy/four-sordid-tales-selfishness-super-rich

Links:
[1] http://alternet.org
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/paul-buchheit
[3] http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2014/regional-committee-africa/en/
[4] http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/26861-privatized-ebola
[5] http://image.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X%2813%2970078-0/fulltext
[6] http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wealthier-americans-give-less-than-poorer-people-2014-10-06
[7] http://philanthropy.com/article/As-Wealthy-Give-Smaller-Share/149191/
[8] http://www.usagainstgreed.org/20141103_Analysis.txt
[9] http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/infuriating-facts-about-our-disappearing-middle-class-wealth
[10] http://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/ar/2012/PDFs/ar12_complete.pdf
[11] http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2011.pdf
[12] http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/grim-numbers-from-the-2014-global-wealth-report/18953-grim-numbers-from-the-2014-global-wealth-report
[13] http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/10/01/guest-post-when-income-tax-cuts-masquerade-as-estate-tax-repeal/
[14] http://blogs.wsj.com/totalreturn/2014/10/30/estate-tax-exemption-for-2015-announced-by-irs/
[15] http://nationalpriorities.org/blog/2013/11/04/tax-break-hedge-fund-managers/
[16] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-anderson/yes-we-can-taxes_b_2505621.html
[17] http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/11/16/1208701/democratic-senator-introduces-bill-to-lift-social-securitys-tax-cap-extend-its-solvency-for-decades/
[18] http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/27418-the-roth-blunder-barrels-on
[19] http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/10/opinion/la-oe-scorse-roth-iras-20110410
[20] http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
[21] http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/baliin.php
[22] http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/09/11/3566194/senior-citizens-student-loan-debt-social-security/
[23] http://psp.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/08/19/0146167213501699.full#aff-1
[24] http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/02/21/1118373109.full.pdf
[25] http://www.alternet.org/economy/5-facts-about-how-america-rigged-massive-wealth-transfer-rich
[26] http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/the-billion-dollar-a-month-club-a-runaway-transfer-of-wealth-to-the-super-rich
[27] http://www.nationofchange.org/2014/10/27/grim-numbers-2014-global-wealth-report/
[28] http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/10/13/why-we-should-be-seething-anger-over-inequality
[29] http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/acsbr10-05.pdf
[30] http://stateofworkingamerica.org/fact-sheets/poverty/
[31] http://blogs.usda.gov/2011/06/24/fact-vs-fiction-usda%E2%80%99s-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program/
[32] http://www.unicef-irc.org/article/1069/
[33] http://www.economicpolicyresearch.org/guaranteeing-retirement-income/528-retirement-account-balances-by-income-even-the-highest-earners-dont-have-enough.html
[34] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/opinion/sunday/our-ridiculous-approach-to-retirement.html?_r=1&
[35] http://www.thenation.com/article/177032/gops-poverty-denialism#
[36] http://www.pfeef.org/research/Financial-Wellness-and-Health-Care-Costs.pdf
[37] http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/07/10/2279851/us-mediocre-health/
[38] http://www.thenation.com/article/177032/gops-poverty-denialism
[39] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/07/opinion/krugman-the-hammock-fallacy.html
[40] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Four Sordid Tales of Selfishness of the Super-Rich
[41] http://www.alternet.org/tags/selfishness
[42] http://www.alternet.org/tags/greed
[43] http://www.alternet.org/tags/income-inequality-0
[44] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B



 

The Mid-Term Elections - Last Gasp of Obstructionism Before Genuine Renewal?

This past week, common sense got whacked in the national mid-term elections.  Around the country, citizens who voted put Republicans firmly in power in both houses of the United States Congress. Republicans also took firm control of state legislatures around the country. How could this happen, given the narrow interests that Republicans support and the abject obstruction they represent on most important issues? 

The biggest reason for this political debacle is the corrosive influence of corporate power and money on our election process.  The conservative majority on our Supreme Court opened the floodgates on legalized bribery with their 'Citizens United' decision on campaign finance.  Corporations and billionaires  are able to buy the politicians and public policy they want by pouring essentially limitless amounts of money into our elections. Our system is rigged to serve the interests of the rich and powerful.

By a wide margin, the Republican Party is the principle conduit for the corruption of our politics. But the Democrats are only marginally better.  Both parties are up to their ears in a system built on moneyed influence.   The vast majority of politicians that are attracted to elective office these days are unprincipled opportunists lining up to feed at the 'dirty money' trough. 

A big part of the problem lies with citizens who don't vote.  Only about a third of the electorate voted in this mid-term election.  Most of those non-voters were registered Democrats or Independents. Some of their failure to vote can be attributed to indifference, but many citizens are just fed up with the open influence peddling that has replaced honest discourse in our system of governance.   Right or wrong, they register their displeasure by dropping out of the voting process.

Republicans don't have that problem. They cater to a handful of single issue voting blocks, who come out to support conservative politicians. I'm talking about gun extremists, anti-abortion zealots, anti-gay evangelicals, and people who have an aversion to taxation of any kind.  Only about twenty percent of registered voters make up the Republican base. They tend to be older, whiter, and male. No matter. They can be counted on to vote.  What amazes me is how many of these misguided souls are poor. For them, a vote for a Republican is ultimately always a vote against their own interests.  Because the Republican Party is a corporatist party.  They really don 't care about their base. They support the bases'  narrow issues, so the base will keep showing up with their votes on election day. The actual constituents  Republican represent are Wall Street bankers, self-absorbed billionaires, and corporatists that are focused on profit to the exclusion of all else.

So, here we are. Republicans, who have successfully obstructed and thwarted most of President Barack Obama's progressive agenda for the past six years, are now the majority in both houses of Congress.   They will continue to obstruct meaningful climate legislation, and they will continue to try to derail the affordable care act, the President's single most important legislative achievement.

Moreover, they will leverage their majority to push legislation that will 'amnesty' billions of dollars of corporate profits that have been hiding in plain sight for years in foreign banks to avoid being taxed.  They will squeeze the life out of the regulatory process by denying operating funds to the Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies, whose job it is to protect the public from bad corporate behavior.  They will look for reasons to funnel more  and more government money to military contractors, despite the fact that the Untied States already spends more on its military than all of the rest of the world combined.

The Republican majority will not do anything to help the middle class. They will not raise the minimum wage, or support job creation programs. They will aggressively resist any initiative that does not serve the interests of  their big money enablers. They will deny the most basic science, when it doesn't fit their political agenda.  Forget about meaningful action on climate change. Forget about reproductive choice. Forget about any kind of useful environmental legislation. The Republican game is more tax breaks for billionaires,  more subsidies for dirty energy, more cuts to anything that helps the middle class. 

The next two years are looking pretty bleak. Even before this last election, the American Congress only registered a 15% approval rating among voters.  The level of public discontent has never been higher, and it can only get worse. 

I see a silver lining in this unfortunate set of political circumstances .  We elect our governments  to protect us against foreign enemies, to maintain law and order, to nurture a healthy economy, to look out for the well being of all citizens.  That's a tall order for Republicans, whose stated goal is to 'drown government in a bathtub'.  Until the next election, Republicans will be in the lead. If they perform as they have over the past few decades, they will fail miserably in their responsibility. Despite their expertise in shifting blame, they will find it difficult to avoid being tagged with the ineptitude that will surely be reflected in their lack of achievement for anyone other than Wall Street, billionaires, and craven corporatists.

By 2016, the public disgust with the corporate plutocracy that has displaced democracy in America will likely be at a fever pitch.  In the next two years, I expect Republicans to thoroughly discredit themselves. 

Echoes of the coming public backlash can be seen in some of the state-level initiatives that passed in this most recent election.  In Wisconsin, Ohio, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Florida, dozens of communities had initiatives on the ballot calling for a Constitutional amendment that eliminates 'Corporate Personhood' and repudiates 'Money being treated as Speech'.  These political referendums all passed by as much as 70% of the voters, including many that characterize themselves as conservatives.

I am convinced that Move to Amend [ www.movetoamend.org }  is the .key to restoring true  democracy in America.   Its Constitutional agenda would take away citizen rights and 'personhood' status from corporations. It would affirm that corporations are nothing more than state chartered legal fictions that, by law, must be accountable to the people for their actions.  The Move to Amend Constitutional Amendment also says that money is property, not a form of speech. Having boatloads of money should not include the right to use it to buy politicians and pervert the American political process.   What we see every time Move to Amend finds its way onto a local ballot, is that voters sign on with their overwhelming support.

The most important response to America's political malfeasance over the next two years is to expand awareness of the Move to Amend agenda.   As a citizen, I believe serving that end is the most important thing I can do.

We cannot count on politicians to deliver the fundamental political change we need. It must come from the grassroots.  'We, the people' must step up and demand the brand of governance the founders of our nation intended, free of corporate dominance; and free of moneyed influence.   We must become the change we wish for.

My name is Earthmanpdx

I was looking for a handle for my twitter account. A number of ideas came to mind. The one that I liked best was Earthmanpdx.  It is an audacious way to identify one’s self.  But, when I discovered that no one else was using it, I figured, ‘why not me?’

What does Earthmanpdx stand for?   It means I am a citizen of the Earth first and foremost, and I happen to live in pdx,  which is code for Portland, Oregon, USA.   Yes, I have a USA passport, and I grew up pledging allegiance. I do identify as an American citizen, but even more so, I see myself as a citizen of the Earth. My first obligation is to nurture and preserve the Earth and its living biosphere. That, to me, is the principle responsibility of every human; protect the integrity of our planet’s living fabric. Job one for every human person on Earth should be to do no harm. 

For the longest time, humans have taken for granted the rich living bounty of our planet. Up until a few decades ago,   the planet’s  biosphere was resilient despite the ravages of human exploitation.  When I was born, the planet’s population was about 2.5 billion human beings. Now, in 2014, in just the past sixty-some years, the number of humans on Earth has nearly tripled to 7.3 billion,  and demographers believe by the end of this century we could have nearly 11 billion, all needing food, water, and shelter at a minimum.  The biosphere we all depend on, the only one we have, is suffocating.   Human demand is outstripping  the planet’s ability to provide.   An unbiased examination of the facts leaves no room for any other conclusion.

I recently read that since 1970, less than fifty years ago, the number of non-human life forms on the Earth has dropped by 52%.  In the same time frame, the human population on Earth doubled. The correlation couldn’t be more obvious.   

We dump millions of tons of our cultural waste into our oceans. We have stripped the sea’s fish stocks to the point  of collapse.  We are using up the planet’s aquifers and fresh water resources.  We have cut down vast areas of forestland. We have replaced our biologically resilient landscapes with industrial monocultures.  We are consuming massive quantities of coal and oil, fossil forms of energy that have choked the atmosphere with pollutants that are directly linked to an unprecedented planetary warming.

People are the problem. We are taking too much of the planet’s rapidly dwindling resources.  Mindless exploitation is no longer an option.  We must mend our ways. It’s either that, or doom future generations to a vastly diminished quality of life.

 Many millions of people around the world recognize that humanity is in severe need of a course correction. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the earth’s population continue, business as usual. They still don’t get it.  That must change.  Reaching a tipping point in global human awareness has to be the primary focus.  

When I chose to identify myself as Earthmanpdx, it is because I want to be a change agent fully engaged in the process of charting a worthy future for humanity.  I am looking for ways to draw people to a life-affirming worldview that respects nature and is sustainable over the long term. 

The good news is there are worthy answers to nearly all of the major global challenges we face.  Human induced atmospheric warming, and the sea level rise, weather extremes,  and other global scale consequences that go with burning fossil fuels,  can dramatically be curbed by choosing a rapid transition to inexhaustible forms of clean energy like solar and wind.   We have the ability to provide reproductive choice to every person, thus slowing the growth of the human population. We can create a regulatory framework for restoring our water, forest, and ocean resources.  We can create a human culture on Earth that assigns proper value to nature and focuses on building a future that can be sustained for generations to come.  To some extent, it is already happening, but not fast enough.  The impediments to progress are much less technical than they are political.  

In America, the Constitution says that government is supposed to be ‘of, by, and for the people’.   In fact, it no longer works that way.  Democracy has been replaced by a plutocracy, in which a handful of very rich bankers, billionaires, and multi-national corporations use their money and influence to buy politicians and shape the public policy they want.

For any chance at a better, more sustainable future for all life on Earth,  the first order of business must be to push back against the stagnation and corruption that has taken over our economic and political system.

Achieving the level of transformation that is sorely needed will be no easy task.  A handful of big money manipulators have amassed an incredible amount of political power.  They will not go away quietly. 

So, what is the prescription for renewal recommended by Earthmanpdx?

An initiative called Move to Amend is growing across America. It’s agenda is simple and straightforward. Move to Amend is entirely about  building a grassroots movement that calls for a Constitutional Amendment that would strip corporations and the rich of their ability to unduly influence our economy and our political process.  A proposed 28^th Constitutional Amendment  would say that 'Corporations are not People' and ‘Money is property, not Speech’.   

There has never been a law that said ‘corporations are people’.   They are in fact, state chartered legal fictions that are supposed to be accountable to the people.   Likewise, the idea of ‘money being speech’ has never been codified in law, instead, it is a corrosive idea that gained legitimacy through legal precedence created by a series of corrupt, high court decisions.

I believe that Move to Amend is focused on the critical struggle of our time. Blunting corporate power.  An amendment that ends corporate personhood and clearly defines money as 'property not speech',  must become a  national calling.  No matter where one’s activism is focused – social justice, economic fairness, environmental protection - the common thread that offers the best hope for achieving positive change is a 28^th Constitutional Amendment as presented by Move to Amend.

______________________

My best years are behind me.  In the  time that I have remaining, I intend to be Earthmanpdx, serving as a change agent for a better future by championing Move to Amend’s Constitutional agenda.  I urge every person to think about who they are, consider the reality that we all face, then join the movement to achieve a constitutional amendment that says ‘Corporations are not People’ and ‘Money is not Speech’.   

Here is a link to Move to Amend's website...  www.movetoamend.org






   

Pay 2 Play

Here is another outstanding wake-up call to the American people. Your political system; your government at every level, local, state, and national is egregiously corrupt.    This film demonstrates clearly that America is no longer a democracy. It is a Konfederacy of Kleptocrats  for sale to any billionaire, banker, or corporate executive willing to shell out big money to buy the public policy they want, with no regard for the consequences.

This is the core issue... the core challenge of our time. The singular focus on profit above all else is shredding the fabric of life on Earth.  Fixing this problem must be job one. 

Here is a link to a trailer for the feature documentary, Pay 2 Play...http://vimeo.com/87025347

He3re is a link to the webpage for Pay 2 Play...  http://pay2play.nationbuilder.com/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=advertising-pay-2-play-20140910-2&utm_campaign=Advertising%20-%20Pay%202%20Play%20-%2020140910

Why Elizabeth Warren Should be the Next President of the United States

In her own words, Senator Warren speaks to Netroots Nation Conference and lays out what she stands for.  She is the leader that we desperately need to be the next President of the United States.

Senator Elizabeth Warren

Here is the link...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDOsAAwTKes

The U.S. Supreme Court - A Corporation's Best Friend

There is nothing written in law that gives corporations human rights, but that hasn't stopped the Supreme Court. Over the years, conservative majority's on the court have issued ten decisions that have bolstered corporate personhood, and seriously undermined the rights of the nation's human citizens in the process.

I pulled the article below from Mother Jones.
 ____________________________

10 Supreme Court Rulings—Before Hobby Lobby—That Turned Corporations Into People

Last week's decision is the latest in a 200-year-long line of rulings giving businesses the same rights as humans.

By Alex Park | Thu Jul. 10, 2014 6:00 AM EDT

 

                         

 

Hobby Lobby is the latest in a 200-year-long line of rulings giving businesses the same rights as humans. 

     

Last week's Hobby Lobby ruling charted new legal territory by granting corporations the same religious rights as real people. The rationale [1] behind the decision—that expanding constitutional rights to businesses is necessary to "protect the rights of people associated with the corporation"—is far from novel. A line of Supreme Court rulings stretching back 200 years has blurred the distinction between flesh-and-blood citizens and the businesses they own, laying the groundwork for Hobby Lobby [2] and the equally contentious Citizens United [3] ruling. Here's a timeline of the corporation's human evolution:

 

1809 (Bank of the United States v. Deveaux) [4]: In the early days of the republic, when state and federal courts were still working out their jurisdictions, the Bank of the United States—a precursor to the US Treasury—sued a Georgia tax collector named Peter Deveaux for property he had seized when the bank failed to pay state taxes. Deveaux argued that, because corporations weren't people, they couldn't sue in federal court. Chief Justice John Marshall agreed. This meant businesses could only sue or be sued in federal court if all the shareholders, and at least one member of the opposing party, lived in the same state. According to Burt Neuborne, a corporate law professor at New York University, Wall Street banks hated this decision because it restricted suits to state courts where judges were partial to the banks' local clients—typically Midwestern farmers.

 

1844 (Louisville, Cincinnati, and Charleston Railroad v. Letson [5]): It soon became apparent that Marshall's decision in Bank of the United States was unworkable because it put corporations outside the reach of the federal courts. Thirty-five years later, after hearing the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Charleston Railroad [5] case, the Supreme Court shifted course, ruling that corporations were "citizens" of the states where they incorporated. Still, it was difficult for a corporation to sue or be sued in federal court unless all its shareholders lived in the same state.

 

1853 (Marshall v. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad [6]): The Supreme Court later upheld the notion that corporations were citizens, but only for the purposes of court jurisdiction; they did not have the same constitutional rights as actual people. The court also ruled that, for litigation purposes, shareholders would be considered citizens of their company's home state. This made it easier for corporations to sue or be sued in federal court by eliminating jurisdictional conflicts.

 

1886 (County of Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad [7]): Now that corporations were legally citizens, corporate attorneys worked to expand their rights. When California officials levied a special tax [8] on the Southern Pacific Railroad, the railroad sued, arguing that singling out the company violated its rights to equal protection under the 14th Amendment, which was intended to protect freed slaves. In a strange twist, the court reporter—a former railroad man—wrote in the published notes on the case that the 14th Amendment did, in fact, apply to the company. Even though this notion appeared nowhere in the high court's actual ruling, 11 years later the court declared it was "well settled [9]" that "corporations are persons within the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment," citing Santa Clara. 

 

1898 (Smyth v. Ames [10]): Building on the Santa Clara decision, the court voided a Nebraska railroad tax, ruling that it was akin to the government taking a corporation's property without due process—a violation of its 14th Amendment rights. (The decision was overturned in the 1944 Federal Power Commission v. Hope Natural Gas decision [11].)

 

1906 (Hale v. Henkel) [12]: Having blocked unlawful seizures of corporate property, the court went on to shield companies from other kinds of intrusion. Writing for the majority, Justice Henry Billings Brown found that corporations, like people, are protected from unreasonable searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment (although the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination did not apply). 

 

1931 (Russian Volunteer Fleet v. United States [13]): A Russian shipbuilder, Russian Volunteer Fleet, sued the US government, claiming that government officials had unlawfully seized property worth more than $4 million. The high court sided with the company, ruling that even foreign corporations are protected from unlawful government seizures under the Fifth Amendment, which ensures fair treatment by the legal system.

 

1977 (United States v. Martin Linen Supply Co. [14]): After a criminal trial for two linen companies and their owner was dismissed due to jury deadlock, federal prosecutors appealed the decision. The Supreme Court ruled that a second trial violated the companies' rights to be tried only once, expanding the double jeopardy rule to include both humans and corporations.

 

2010 (Citizens United v. FEC) [15]: In the run up to the 2008 election, the Federal Elections Commission blocked the conservative nonprofit Citizens United from airing a film about Hillary Clinton based on a law barring companies from using their funds for "electioneering communications" within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election. The organization sued, arguing that, because people's campaign donations are a protected form of speech (see Buckley v. Valeo [16]) and corporations and people enjoy the same legal rights, the government can't limit a corporation's independent political donations. The Supreme Court agreed. The Citizens United ruling may be the most sweeping expansion of corporate personhood to date. 

 

2014 (Burwell v. Hobby Lobby) [17]: Corporations are legally people with the right to free speech, but do they have religious rights? Apparently, they do. In 2012, Hobby Lobby, an Oklahoma-based craft store chain, sued the federal government, arguing that a provision in the Affordable Care Act requiring it to provide contraception coverage for employees violated shareholders' constitutional rights to freedom of religion. The Supreme Court sided with Hobby Lobby and found that corporations can assert the religious rights of their owners, greatly expanding the power of shareholders while creating a world of confusion [18] for corporate attorneys.

 

The Future: If a corporation has First Amendment rights, could it also claim Second Amendment protections? Amazingly, this is a question some scholars are seriously pondering. As Darrell A.H. Miller wrote in his 2011 article "Guns, Inc." in the NYU Law Review [19], "If Citizens United is taken seriously, the Second Amendment, like the First Amendment and like many other provisions of the Bill of Rights, guarantees liberties to natural and corporate persons alike." Bang!

 

---

Source URL: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/how-supreme-court-turned-corporations-people-200-year-saga

Links:
[1] http://www.omaha.com/money/court-rulings-trigger-renewed-debate-over-corporate-personhood/article_55f847ac-6d18-5c9b-acbe-c25de887a756.html
[2] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/03/hobby-lobby-supreme-court-obamacare
[3] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/05/citizens-united-amendment-flowchart
[4] http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a3_2_1s50.html
[5] http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/43/497/case.html
[6] http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/57/314/case.html
[7] https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/118/394/case.html
[8] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2006/10/when-corporation-freed-slave
[9] http://repository.jmls.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=lawreview
[10] https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/169/466/case.html
[11] https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/320/591/case.html
[12] https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/201/43/case.html
[13] http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/282/481/
[14] http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/430/564/
[15] http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/558/08-205/opinion.html
[16] https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/424/1/case.html
[17] http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/13-354_olp1.pdf
[18] http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/07/hobby-lobbys-other-problem
[19] http://www.nyulawreview.org/issues/volume-86-number-4/guns-inc-citizens-united-mcdonald-and-future-corporate-constitutional