Trevor, Brian and Jordan, (who commented on http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/12/05/u-s-income-inequality-on-rise-for-decades-is-now-highest-since-1928/?moderated#comment-546050)
I agree completely!! Corporations are non-citizens and should not be influencing ballot measures or candidate campaigns at all. We already rule out any influence from Japanese citizens, or German citizens. Corporate stock can be owned by anyone around the globe, and thus corporations have interests that conflict with our national interests. Restore the privileges of citizenship to the citizens exclusively (see the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, and my arguments about how courts have been alienating citizens from their rights and privileges)!! And after all corporations are merely legal inventions -- why should they be represented in any manner similar to the representation of citizens??
Following Trevor's second point, the circumstances from Ferguson (and so many other communities) demonstrate how people are not represented adequately in our Republic! We need to get more people to be active citizens through voting and through constant conversations with their representatives.
Similar to Trevor's second point, we need to be sure there are enough incentives for all people to be community involved and to seek out adequate income. Knowing that you own part of this country will make you more interested in what is important to keep the country on the right track.
My most striking proposal (I suspect this will take 30 years to happen) is to have an income cap. If the top earning people are taxed at 100% for every dollar they earn after the first $15 million in a year, then they will walk away from the table after that ceiling is reached. Then the market systems (not governments) can help to redistribute (not the dollars but) those financial incentives to larger and larger groups of people. Plus, corporations (not allowed to have their finances prying into political balloting and not overpaying their top executives, managers and investors) will have to find efficient ways to spend their money (R&D, equipment investments, greater workplace safety, higher wages for employees, greater quality of products) and/or lower some prices in the market place. Yes, the market mechanisms can redistribute all this without the government trying to decide IF we regulate the greed. As a bonus, if we regulate the greed with an income cap, then a lot of other minor regulations can be eliminated -- those regulations that are merely nibbling at these problems of income inequality.
I'd like to stay in touch with people of your thinking!!
AuntieGreed@gmail.com
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