The news is filled with stories about the misdeeds of major corporations. Banks and Investment Companies tricking their customers and profiting from the near collapse of the US economy,Hi Tech giants conspiring to fix employee salaries and limit employees' ability to seek jobs within the industry,Car manufactures failing to promptly notify the public and government about dangerous safety issues,Drug companies promoting the "unapproved use" of prescription medications,Medical device makers conniving Physicians to use their products for untested and unsafe uses,Energy Companies operating coal mines without using best efforts to prevent accidents (people really died here),major oil company operating an offshore oil drilling platform without ALL the safety features that could have been used (More dead here),the list goes on and on. It seems that almost every day a new case of Corporate Irresponsibility is in the news. Why is this? Do the companies not have the money to do business the right way? Well, many of these companies are leaders in their industries and have reported record breaking net profits. Or maybe they would like to blame the unions,that's their favorite target to blame their corporate failings on.Just like they used to blame the female victim in rape cases, " they were asking for it...".Or, as certain Republicans and so called Tea-Partiers claim its because the government is too big and there are too many regulations.
Well, here are the answers. These accidents,rip-offs,disregard for the lives of customers and employees is the direct result of nearly a decade of De-regulation,government lack of enforcement, legislative collusion and virtual destruction of the American labor movement because the Corporations have become too big, have too much money and way too much influence on the governments Federal,State and Local.
How many times have we heard," the Private sector can handle things the government is incompetent. To that I say, well, how's that working out for you?
Companies,like humans, need a moral compass, otherwise they start acting like sociopaths. They have no compunction about violating ethical standards,laws or hurting people.In fact, they will stand before Congress,The courts and the Press and insist that they "have done nothing wrong and violated NO laws..." perhaps we'll soon hear them say " I was just following orders...make profits".
