Corporations ARE people!!!

I had the lovely pleasure of spending Thanksgiving weekend out of town in the company of my brother and his family, and with a long, traffic-filled, construction-clogged bus ride home ahead of me, I settled down into the narrow seat, rested on my knees on the too-close seat in front of me, and put my ear buds in to catch up on some podcasts.  I skimmed through my selections and saw one from Radio West (http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kuer/news.newsmain/article/184/0/1874647/RadioWest.(M-F..11AM..and..7PM)/111411.Living.on.a.Food.Stamp.Budget) about the Food Stamp Challenge.  


According to host Doug Fabrizio, if you are on a food stamp budget you have about $4 a day per person to eat.  That's about $1.33 per meal.  So the challenge was to put yourself on this budget and see how you did and to hopefully gain some empathy for those who are actually having to live on that kind of budget every day, all year.  Taking the challenge was chef Karl Wilder.  His focus on the challenge was not only to make the budgetary restraints but also to meet nutritional requirements, which he discovered was one of the more difficult parts of the challenge.  You can check out his musings on the process here:   (http://www.fusiononthefly.com/). 


We've all heard the tales of the woman pulling up to the grocery store in a Bentley and fur coat, then going into the grocery store to buy steak and lobster with her food stamps.  Many people calling into the podcast told stories of people waiting in front of grocery stores to sell their welfare cards, 50 cents on the dollar so they could, presumably, run off to buy cigarettes, booze, and blow.  When asked if doing the challenge changed his outlook on welfare recipients and his opinion of those that received welfare, he said (and I'm paraphrasing here because I don't have a transcript), "absolutely.  What it opened my eyes to was that all welfare is corporate welfare.  Every person receiving food stamps is a worker who has been paid less so that corporations can pass on benefits to the stockholders.  Every person receiving food stamps has had their hourly wages knocked back or their hours cut so they can continue to meet their profit margins."  


My eyes snapped open from my semi-nap and it all started swirling in my head:  All welfare is essentially corporate welfare because all government assistance allows corporations to pay less in wages, benefits, and taxes.


So today I found this:

GAO’s audit of the Fed.

The biggest bailouts follow:

Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Stearns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)

France?  Did I read that right?  The U.S. government is bailing out banks in France and the UK?  Hmmm...

What if instead of that first entry being Citigroup, what if it said, "Medicare?"  And instead of JP Morgan receiving $391 billion right now, what if that said "education?"  JP Morgan, if you've been following the news that no one wants you to see, is in big trouble right now with the MF Global bankruptcy proceedings.  They can't quite seem to find $1.3 billion (yeah, that's with a "b."  Customer money that just may or may not have been used to hedge bets on bad European debt).  

And what about this notion of corporate personhood?  In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the John Robert's Supreme Court ruled that corporations indeed have the same rights as people.  I recently watched a documentary called "The Corporation" (http://www.thecorporation.com/) that asked this simple question:  If corporations are people, what kind of people are they?  

Below is a test for psychopathy.  I went ahead and took the test on behalf of the corporations, and according to my opinion of them (and that's just what it is, an opinion), they are psychopaths.  Psychopathy is defined as this:  a mental disorder in which an individual manifests amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to learn from experience, etc.

I will close with this simple quote from Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh:

"In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, To hate, So we will rally behind them. And if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us." 

It's time to go all zen on the government.  It's time to love it out of its madness.  It's time to stand up for your rights and not be a fly on the corporate monolith.  If the corporation has been given the same rights as you, then we should, in the eyes of the government, be equal.  Right?  

Test for Psychopathy

For each of the 20 characteristics, give a score of 0 if it does not apply, 1 if it applies partially and 2 if it is a perfect match.

1	Glib and Superficial Charm	The tendency to be smooth, engaging, charming, slick, and verbally facile. Psychopathic charm is not in the least shy, self-conscious, or afraid to say anything. A psychopath never gets tongue-tied. They have freed themselves from the social conventions about taking turns in talking, for example.
2	Grandiose Self-Worth	A grossly inflated view of one's abilities and self-worth, self-assured, opinionated, cocky, a braggart. Psychopaths are arrogant people who believe they are superior human beings.
3	Need for Stimulation or Proneness to Boredom	An excessive need for novel, thrilling, and exciting stimulation; taking chances and doing things that are risky. Psychopaths often have a low self-discipline in carrying tasks through to completion because they get bored easily. They fail to work at the same job for any length of time, for example, or to finish tasks that they consider dull or routine.
4	Pathological Lying	Can be moderate or high; in moderate form, they will be shrewd, crafty, cunning, sly, and clever; in extreme form, they will be deceptive, deceitful, underhanded, unscrupulous, manipulative, and dishonest.
5	Conning and Manipulativeness	The use of deceit and deception to cheat, con, or defraud others for personal gain; distinguished from Item #4 in the degree to which exploitation and callous ruthlessness is present, as reflected in a lack of concern for the feelings and suffering of one's victims.
6	Lack of Remorse or Guilt	A lack of feelings or concern for the losses, pain, and suffering of victims; a tendency to be unconcerned, dispassionate, coldhearted, and unempathic. This item is usually demonstrated by a disdain for one's victims.
7	Shallow Affect	Emotional poverty or a limited range or depth of feelings; interpersonal coldness in spite of signs of open gregariousness.
8	Callousness and Lack of Empathy	A lack of feelings toward people in general; cold, contemptuous, inconsiderate, and tactless.
9	Parasitic Lifestyle	An intentional, manipulative, selfish, and exploitative financial dependence on others as reflected in a lack of motivation, low self-discipline, and inability to begin or complete responsibilities.
10	Poor Behavioral Controls	Expressions of irritability, annoyance, impatience, threats, aggression, and verbal abuse; inadequate control of anger and temper; acting hastily.
11	Promiscuous Sexual Behavior	A variety of brief, superficial relations, numerous affairs, and an indiscriminate selection of sexual partners; the maintenance of several relationships at the same time; a history of attempts to sexually coerce others into sexual activity or taking great pride at discussing sexual exploits or conquests.
12	Early Behavior Problems	A variety of behaviors prior to age 13, including lying, theft, cheating, vandalism, bullying, sexual activity, fire-setting, glue-sniffing, alcohol use, and running away from home.
13	Lack of Realistic, Long-Term Goals	an inability or persistent failure to develop and execute long-term plans and goals; a nomadic existence, aimless, lacking direction in life.
14	Impulsivity	The occurrence of behaviors that are unpremeditated and lack reflection or planning; inability to resist temptation, frustrations, and urges; a lack of deliberation without considering the consequences; foolhardy, rash, unpredictable, erratic, and reckless.
15	Irresponsibility	Repeated failure to fulfill or honor obligations and commitments; such as not paying bills, defaulting on loans, performing sloppy work, being absent or late to work, failing to honor contractual agreements.
16	Failure to Accept Responsibility for Own Actions	A failure to accept responsibility for one's actions reflected in low conscientiousness, an absence of dutifulness, antagonistic manipulation, denial of responsibility, and an effort to manipulate others through this denial.
17	Many Short-Term Marital Relationships	A lack of commitment to a long-term relationship reflected in inconsistent, undependable, and unreliable commitments in life, including marital.
18	Juvenile Delinquency	Behavior problems between the ages of 13-18; mostly behaviors that are crimes or clearly involve aspects of antagonism, exploitation, aggression, manipulation, or a callous, ruthless tough-mindedness.
19	Revocation of Condition Release	A revocation of probation or other conditional release due to technical violations, such as carelessness, low deliberation, or failing to appear.
20	Criminal Versatility	A diversity of types of criminal offenses, regardless if the person has been arrested or convicted for them; taking great pride at getting away with crimes.
	TOTAL
	DIAGNOSIS	Hillary