Truth! Corporations don’t care about climate change. They don’t care about people, about life on Earth. They don’t care about their own workers. They may pretend but all they really care about is profit this year. Maybe next year. Unions are a necessary balance to corporate greed and blindness. We need stronger unions now!
I like your treatment of one of the knarliest problems of our modern corporate capitalist nation states. I was especially drawn to your statement that “A well functioning society has a three-way battle for power between the government, corporations, and labor. When one of these gets too powerful, as corporations have today, society loses.”
I’ve experimented with putting education somewhere on that three legged milking stool as well, but four legs doesn’t work as well. I guess we need all of the wiles we can muster on each leg.
I think we need especially to bring creative thought to the place of corporate capitalism in our modern societies. I have seen too much un-creative destruction in my lifetime!
Of course. Similarly, one might note, there is little hope of solving the climate crisis via putting corporations in charge of alternative energy. EV's won't resolve the climate crisis unless we control the need for using the vehicle to go a half block. Continuing to control energy from huge power plants, and the idea we can make "endless' energy"; even stars burn out. It is the corporate attitude that there is an endless supply of anything that creates an endless demand.
It's interesting. I know this isn't the main point here but you speak about a balance between labor, government, and corporations... we've clearly seen societies where either governments or corporations have run amok but have we ever seen such a society for labor? Its not impossible on a conceptual level but I don't know of a time where it happened.
It may very well be the case that we should have more vigorous anti-trust enforcement and or that unions should have greater bargaining power, but I hardly believe that you mean "that answer is not greenhouse gases, but concentrated corporate power."
Uh...no. The UAW doesn't even represent half of autoworkers in the US because it is a corrupt, antiquated entity. It has intentionally slowed the EV transition...because EVs should only require about a third of the existing workforce to build. They have ZERO interest in the needed climate solutions. What a very superficial take.
Yeah, this is a good point and it's the reason we don't want unions running the country. We want a battle royale between corporations, unions, and the gov't.
You seem to have missed the point here. US govt is giving Billions to corrupt short term focused car makers with no strings attached. UAW is asking for some accountability for this money, not a race-to-the-bottom that will otherwise happen.
I generally agree with your sentiments. But this is not just a problem with the CEOs of US corporations having insufficient (and in some cases, yes any) concerns with the state of the world in 10 years. There are numerous countries and their leadership (Russia being a prime example) that don’t care either and they have much more power than corporations. Governments around the world are building coal plants that will operate for decades. Workers in these countries have essentially no legal rights and certainly no right to organize or challenge their government’s policies. The problems in the US are large but ultimately fixable. As to the rest of the world outside a few nations, I don’t see solutions at this point.
We need to fight for Petrocommunism: government seizure of all fossil fuels. That way the People can use central planning to direct a very small flow of fossil fuels to where they are actually needed most, and impose a somatic energy regime on the bourgeoise. https://thespouter.substack.com/p/the-solution-to-petrocapitalism-is
Well said. Reagan's "trickle down" polices did just that, but they have left a foul odor and are a special kind of waste dumped upon society.
Truth! Corporations don’t care about climate change. They don’t care about people, about life on Earth. They don’t care about their own workers. They may pretend but all they really care about is profit this year. Maybe next year. Unions are a necessary balance to corporate greed and blindness. We need stronger unions now!
I like your treatment of one of the knarliest problems of our modern corporate capitalist nation states. I was especially drawn to your statement that “A well functioning society has a three-way battle for power between the government, corporations, and labor. When one of these gets too powerful, as corporations have today, society loses.”
I’ve experimented with putting education somewhere on that three legged milking stool as well, but four legs doesn’t work as well. I guess we need all of the wiles we can muster on each leg.
I think we need especially to bring creative thought to the place of corporate capitalism in our modern societies. I have seen too much un-creative destruction in my lifetime!
Spot on. Well said, Sir. And, BTW, I not only support unions; I belong to one - Freelancer's Union.
Of course. Similarly, one might note, there is little hope of solving the climate crisis via putting corporations in charge of alternative energy. EV's won't resolve the climate crisis unless we control the need for using the vehicle to go a half block. Continuing to control energy from huge power plants, and the idea we can make "endless' energy"; even stars burn out. It is the corporate attitude that there is an endless supply of anything that creates an endless demand.
It's interesting. I know this isn't the main point here but you speak about a balance between labor, government, and corporations... we've clearly seen societies where either governments or corporations have run amok but have we ever seen such a society for labor? Its not impossible on a conceptual level but I don't know of a time where it happened.
I appreciate the framing of the problem as one of the wrong rules of the game, or that’s how I read it.
Therefore how do we reduce corporate lobbying to restore democratic voice? Or how do we make corporations care about the future?
What, if any, role does shareholder engagement have ? Stakeholder capitalism? Increased employee ownership of companies?
Suppose we need many tools all at once...
It may very well be the case that we should have more vigorous anti-trust enforcement and or that unions should have greater bargaining power, but I hardly believe that you mean "that answer is not greenhouse gases, but concentrated corporate power."
Uh...no. The UAW doesn't even represent half of autoworkers in the US because it is a corrupt, antiquated entity. It has intentionally slowed the EV transition...because EVs should only require about a third of the existing workforce to build. They have ZERO interest in the needed climate solutions. What a very superficial take.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/03/uaw-withholding-biden-re-election-endorsement-over-ev-transition.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/28/uaw-presidential-runoff.html#:~:text=The%20shuffle%20follows%20a%20yearslong,investigation%2C%20including%20two%20past%20presidents.
Yeah, this is a good point and it's the reason we don't want unions running the country. We want a battle royale between corporations, unions, and the gov't.
You seem to have missed the point here. US govt is giving Billions to corrupt short term focused car makers with no strings attached. UAW is asking for some accountability for this money, not a race-to-the-bottom that will otherwise happen.
I generally agree with your sentiments. But this is not just a problem with the CEOs of US corporations having insufficient (and in some cases, yes any) concerns with the state of the world in 10 years. There are numerous countries and their leadership (Russia being a prime example) that don’t care either and they have much more power than corporations. Governments around the world are building coal plants that will operate for decades. Workers in these countries have essentially no legal rights and certainly no right to organize or challenge their government’s policies. The problems in the US are large but ultimately fixable. As to the rest of the world outside a few nations, I don’t see solutions at this point.
We need to fight for Petrocommunism: government seizure of all fossil fuels. That way the People can use central planning to direct a very small flow of fossil fuels to where they are actually needed most, and impose a somatic energy regime on the bourgeoise. https://thespouter.substack.com/p/the-solution-to-petrocapitalism-is