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By Walter Sorochan Posted June 20, 2018. Disclaimer Some 200 multinational corporations control and their shareholders own over 95 percent of all private business in the world. 44 of the biggest corporations in the USA paid taxes at a rate of 17 per cent in 2001, while the “ man on the street” paid 35 per cent; 17 percent of US corporations paid no tax. The corporation was invented early in the colonial era as a grant of privilege extended by the Crown to a group of investors, usually to finance a trade expedition. The corporation limited the liability of investors to the amount of their investment --- a right not held by ordinary citizens. Almost from the beginning, Britain deployed state military power to further corporate interests --- a practice tat has continued to the present day. The corporation was a legal invention to generate profits for its investors. Thus corporations do not serve society as a whole but instead, only its investors. In 1886, the US Supreme Court declared that corporations were henceforth to be considered “persons" under the law, with all the constitutional rights that designation implies. Thus, corporations became empowered with the rights of individuals as well as protection from liability while being protected by the government to make huge profits. These are amenities that “ average citizens “ do not have. In the 1980’s corporations evolved a new world order by way of capital mobility and restructuring of overseas production. Thus national corporations garnered the ability to move around globally as “ clouds without international borders. “ Corporations, no longer bound by national laws, prowl the world looking for the best deals on labour and raw materials. Of the world’s top 120 economies, nearly half are corporations, not countries. [ Heinberg, Richard, “ A history of corporate rule and popular protest,” Nexus Magazine, Oct-Nov, 2002, Vol 9, No 6., ] Currently, corporate insiders run the USA government. It takes humans years to change their citizenship from one country to another whereas corporations can change their citizenship in a day. An example of power and money! Political corruption in America is the basis of every major problem in America. Here are a few examples of problems:
Big business has been taken over by corporations, that, in turn, have used lobbying to evolve legislation that gives corporations regulatory economic powers within each country. Government representation of a single voter has been bought out by the lobbying of corporate voters. Individual representation of a single citizen voter has been displaced by corporate democracy. Corporations have spread globally. Numerous suggestions have been proposed to fix the injustices and economic greed of the world: Globilization: --- the borderless world idea began in 1990. An idea that national economies become functionally integrated into one global economy and manage the world economy. Global economy would be run by multinational corporations benefiting everyone. Result would be reducing production costs to increase profits by outsourcing, finding cheaper raw resources and foreign sweat shops. These predictions have dismal outcomes for the past 15 years. The European Union and Chinese economies have become stronger than a decade ago. Transnational corporations in China march to the tune of the state government rather than to corporate control as in United States, Canada, Japan and other countries of the world. Latin American countries [ Bolivia, Argentina and Venezuela ] have launched their own version of regional world trade economics. These world events, perceived as globalization, are dividing the world instead of dividing economics [ violence and terrorism, primitive accumulation of wealth, culture wars and violence of militarized warfare [Shiva Vandana, “ The polarized world of globilization,” May 27, 2005, Historically, social movements have arisen primarily because of injustice, inequalities and corruption. |