I was going to comment on one of the earlier posts about the Seattle
protests being against capitalism. I was going to say the the problem is
not with capitalism per se but that the current capitalism is unrestained
by any moral code of behavior.
I guess after seeing to what depths of stupidity the greedhead mentality of
profit at all costs corporations will go to line their pockets at the peril
of the rest of society, it is time to put an end to this folly. When I
worked in state government back in the dark ages of college, the new idea
was to sunset all appropriations on an annual basis. Each year, each
program had to justify it's reason for being in order to get funding. The
idea was to weed out programs that no longer served a public purpose but
existed just because they had always existed.
I propose that corporate charters be similarly sunsetted at a fixed term of
years. After all corporations exist because they are given a charter by
the state and the charter can be revoked in court by the State Attorney
General. The charter could be renewed through a process similar to the
license given to a broadcast station. A public hearing would be held where
private and public parties could present information about the conduct of
the organization and whether it had served the public good during its' last
charter period. This information would be used by a charter commission to
determine whether they would recommend another charter for the company.
Having this system in place would either lead to a corporate overthrow of
the government or corporations would start to behave as if there were other
people on this earth than just their stockholders.
On a lighter note, I noticed in this article from England, the same theme
of connectedness to the land that Bromfield mentions existing in France.
See below.
"Everything not permitted is forbidden.
That, alone, is enough of a motivation to save your own seeds. But there is
more. In these days of convenience stores and fresh food all year round, it
is, if one is so minded, a real pleasure to put food you have grown on your
table. Without going all the way to self-sufficiency, the knowledge that
you could, if you wanted to, is rewarding far beyond the effort involved.
But there is more.
When I grow food from seeds that I have saved, I feel a powerful connection
with the entire history of agriculture. A chain links one season to the
next, one generation to its parents, right back to the first people who
deliberately decided to look after some of the plants and animals they ate.
When I sow my saved seeds, I am part of that chain. I am a human being."
Mike Miller
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