Corporations were once charters that could EASILY have their charters revoked if they engaged in unethical or malicious practices. Corporations had a lot to lose if they did not abide by the law and the conditions of their charter. Nowadays, their is little accountability for corporations (when was the last time you heard of a charter being revoked?), and these legal fictions can just dissolve conveniently in the face of impending legal issues. Corporations were once recognized as being inherently less valuable than human life, and therefore did not enjoy all the rights and protections that a citizen had in terms of accountability and public/civil conduct. Nowadays, corporations have more rights and less accountability than our citizens in court, and are often let off the hook for major crimes. When did you last hear of a corporation facing criminal charges for using immigrant labor, for defrauding the public, for false advertising, for failure to meet civic duties such as tax liabilities? Today corporations face relatively benign civil (monetary) penalties for such heinous acts as knowingly polluting, for failure to comply with federal and state safety standards, for health violations, for discrimination, etc.
The free market and capitalism were never designed or intended to be free from oversight or free from legislation that provides checks and balances. Checks and balances are one of the most fundamental building blocks of America. Don't let some business friendly politician tell you that lawlessness and unchecked markets are the ideal basis for our economy. If you believe that, you might as well just give all government powers to one of our three branches of government.
Our CEO's are the creeps they are because we have fostered a downright criminal environment where the biggest rewards go to those who pull off the biggest heists. CEO's are basically free from legal responsibilty, so long as they don't bet on themselves too early (insider trading). No exec has been punished for robbing millions and even billions of dollars from their workers in the form of guaranteed pensions, or faced retribution for not fulfilling contractual obligations. They have run companies into the ground, violating the trust of many; they have taken endless REWARDING and STIMULATING jobs from our economy, and no one has faced the music. Our business friendly government (both parties) excuses these actions, and allows the process to continue. WE THE PEOPLE are part of this checks and balances system. We need to reassert our influence . Listening to talk radio is not being active in the system. Voting for a certain political party because they claim to be labor friendly is not enough. Vote locally for the least business oriented candidate you can find. Trickle down does not work for the economy any more today, and it does not work for government either. To rebuild decency in our government, and eventually put morality and ethics back into business law, we need to start at the bottom, and install local leaders who can best represent the local needs, and stand up to the corrupted leaders above them. Defiance is the most American of traits. Lets push change up from the bottom, and erode the bases of the highest leaders who stand by and let our middle class disappear.
In November, make sure you have put a lot of thought into who you vote for. The President of the US is not the only box to check on our ballots. We can go all day hoping to get a knockout headshot on our highest leaders, but 12 rounds of body shots will pay off.