Daily Topics - Wednesday September 7th, 2011
By shawnt56
The Big Picture "On Air" Questions or Comments for Thom?
Hour One: S.O.S. for the U.S.P.S.? Chuck Zlatkin, New York Metro Area Postal Union (APWU/AFL-CIO)
Hour Two: It's raining...jobs plans?! Congressman Earnest Istook, Heritage Foundation
Hour Three: "9/11 Transformations" - Cliff Schecter, Libertas LLC
Comments
#2
Here's an idea. Rather than go back to dismantling corporations after 20 years or 40 years (since we kind of depends on the constancy of their existence), let's simply split every publicly traded corporation when it reaches 20 years. It doesn't matter if it's a monopoly or not. Each director and each stock holder would go to one or the other. The day of the split starts the clock on when those two companies will be split 20 years later.
We could even call it job creation, since each new corporation would have to fill out its ranks a bit.
#3
@Mathboy, that's not a bad idea. Perhaps instead of making 20 years the only way to initiate splitting the corporation, perhaps there could also be triggers to split a corporation when x number of employees have been reached or y amount of profit is being generated for a certain number of sequential quarters. That way a corporation that is getting too big too fast doesn't have an excuse to remain consolidated at the end of its 20 year period, claiming its too big to split.
N
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
Mueller's favorite place to pray (written about in "Prophet's Way"), and the roof of the room where the Last Supper is reputed to have happened.
With His Holiness The Dalai Lama, at His home in Dharamsala, India (Synthesis Dialogues - made into a movie narrated by Harrison Ford)
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"In an age rife with media-inspired confusion and political cowardice, we yearn for a decent, caring, deeply human soul whose grasp of the problems confronting us provides a light by which we can make our way through the quagmire of lies, distortions, pandering, and hollow self-puffery that strips the American Dream of its promise. How lucky we are, then, to have access to the wit, wisdom, and willingness of Thom Hartmann, who shares with us here that very light, grown out of his own life experience."
From Screwed:
"Hartmann speaks with the straight talking clarity and brilliance of a modern day Tom Paine as he exposes the intentional and systematic destruction of America’s middle class by an alliance of political con artists and outlines a program to restore it. This is Hartmann at his best. Essential reading for those interested in restoring the institution that made America the envy of the world."
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"With the ever-growing influence of corporate CEOs and their right-wing allies in all aspects of American life, Hartmann’s work is more relevant than ever. Throughout his career, Hartmann has spoken compellingly about the value of people-centered democracy and the challenges that millions of ordinary Americans face today as a result of a dogma dedicated to putting profit above all else. This collection is a rousing call for Americans to work together and put people first again."
Perhaps the left should embrace globalization, perhaps unions in the US should start making demands that other countries have unions too. One way I think it could be started would be the longshoremens unions refusing to unload cargo from countries of orgin that do not have union counterparts loading cargo. If we're going to be saddled by free trade agreements, then perhaps its time we raise the tide world wide, and give every country a middle class economic structure by demanding it, and going on general strike if we don't get it.
BTW, if you search "two santa claus theory" in Google, Thom's article on CommonDreams is at the top of the list, then wikipedia is second.
N