Reply #7: So we should just keep letting them blackmail us? [View All]

[starroute]

It seems pretty clear from their reactions that the ultimate dream of these corporations is to never be taxed, be able to move capital and operations around the globe freely in search of profits and cheap labor, and to treat the US market for their goods as a captive audiences.

They haven't quite reached that ideal -- but any time anybody suggests reversing the direction of things, they start screaming and making threats to take their bat and go home.

The only effect I can see of giving into their threats time after time is that we get boiled slowly instead of quickly.

It might hurt US pride a bit, but we have to stop acting like the dominant economic power we no longer are and start behaving more like a rising economy. We have to protect domestic industries, encourage research and innovation only to the extent that the results go to benefit the US population as a whole, and threaten any corporation that doesn't play by our rules with the loss of its US markets.

The deeply impoverished Southern states like Alabama and Mississippi are currently falling all over themselves in the attempt to give corporations everything they want, including pre-guaranteed polluting rights -- but it doesn't seem to be doing them a lot of good. Standing up to the corporations instead would be a welcome change.