Philosophy

Mega-corporations (A.K.A. big business) are pushing the proprietorships and small partnerships out of business and the government is doing nothing to prevent this. While it is true we need these large corporations, (our economy will collapse without them) what we do not need are mega-corporations that push the small proprietors and partnerships into bankruptcy.

The corner grocery store, the neighborhood hardware store, the ma and pa hamburger stand and many other types of proprietorships and small partnerships are all rapidly disappearing. They cannot compete with the lower prices offered by the franchise outlets of big business.

We need the small businessman! Without him we lose control over our economy to the CEOs and board members of big business. We then become slaves to an impersonal system that treats all of us as just another account number. For example, when one has a complaint with a small business he talks to the owner but when one has a complaint with big business one talks to a “phone number.”

The small businessman helps to keep prices in check and offers a personalized service that the large corporation cannot offer. Big business cannot financially afford to offer the same personalized service that the proprietor and small partnership offers to its customers.

Mega-corporations must make business decisions based upon an accounting ledger, which cannot take into consideration the human element. On the other hand, the proprietorship or small partnership must make decisions based upon an interaction with their customers.

Big business must concentrate on volume and quantity of sales. If it does not then it will go bankrupt. The proprietor and small partnership must concentrate on personalized service and the quality of the sale. If not then it will go bankrupt.

Finally, a local franchise of a mega-corporation is not a small business; it is simply an extension of a mega-corporation.

I am not trying to say that we should get rid of big business. They are needed in order to continue the research that the small proprietor and partnership cannot afford to do and for which they ought to be financially reimbursed.

What I am saying is that we need to protect the small businessman from being pushed into bankruptcy by big business. By not protecting the small businessman from big business the government is allowing these mega-corporations to rape the working class.

Because the more small businesses that are in existence in a local area the more control the people have over their own economy. Conversely, the fewer small businesses there are the less control the people have over their own economy.

Big business and individual civil liberties are frequently at odds with each other. The automobile seatbelt is a classic example. When the seatbelt was first introduced it was a novelty. Soon it became something which one was advised to use while driving a car. Then it became law that all children must use them. Now it is a law that everyone must use them.

This encroachment upon our civil liberties was endorsed by big insurance companies in their desire to save money by reducing injuries incurred in automobile accidents. They used their influence in the state governments and induced state legislators to vote in favor of the law.

On the surface it appears to be a good law for it helps to reduce injuries incurred in accidents and all children under a certain age should be required by law to wear seatbelts. But should consenting adults be subject to the same constrictions? Should consenting adults be forced by rule of law to help insurance companies save money?

It seems to me that if insurance companies want to lower medical costs then they should produce commercials that try to convince people of the wisdom of using seatbelts. They should not induce legislators into making restrictive laws that force everyone into using seatbelts, even those who do not want to wear them or worse those who are fearful of wearing them.

The mega-corporation insurance companies offered the seatbelt law as safety device. But it is a law that was offered as bait on a barbed hook, for the law takes away one’s freedom of choice. Now one is hooked and cannot get away from using them. Now one must use a seatbelt while driving a car regardless of what one believes about them. (Some people are afraid of being trapped in a burning or sinking auto.)

One must use seatbelts regardless of where one is driving. (Are they really needed while driving through a parking lot?) One must use them regardless of the speed one is going. (Are they really needed when driving through a slow residential district?)

I see the same future encroachment and denial of our civil liberties with the wearing of helmets while riding a bicycle or motorcycle, with laws against what some people define as pornography and others as art, with laws against what some people proclaim as free speech and others as unpatriotic tirade, with the all new patriot laws allowing the government to encroach upon our civil rights in its hunt for terrorists.

I see the same eroading away of our civli liberties in many other areas.

In each of these instances our rights will not be taken away overnight. But ever so slowly, our rights will gradually disappear one by one, until our grandchildren’s grandchildren wake up one morning only to discover that big business and big government control everything. They will then only have an ersatz Bill of Rights to protect them. The only way to stop such is to make a stronger Bill of Rights, delineating each of our rights.

These intrusive laws are not made overnight. Nor is their original goal the taking away of our rights and liberties. It is a long, slow process. First it is a novelty. Soon it becomes for our convenience and then it is for the safety of our children. Next it’s for everyone’s safety. Finally, it’s for the protection of our national security.

But behind every one of these laws big business is making a profit and big government is getting stronger. In the end we will be stuck with our modern conveniences, our safe and instantaneous lives, our standardized and sanitized world and our ersatz freedom because there will be no Bill of Rights.

If I may quote from the founding fathers of our Constitution: Those who give up essential liberties in order to obtain a little, temporary safety, deserve neither the liberty nor the safety.

Thus, predatory materialism is taking over the world. Thus, big government and big business are taking control of our lives. When one gives into these mega-corporations one becomes their slave. One becomes dependent upon them for one’s survival. Then they can dictate to one what one can and cannot do, what one can and cannot say, and even what one can and cannot believe in.

This is the type of life the average person had during the Middle Ages, prior to the Declaration of Independence. Big business and big government are trying their best to return us there. The only way to prevent it is to have a stronger, more delineated Bill of Rights. Because the stronger the Bill of Rights then the stronger are the people and the stronger is the government.

Capitalism