Big business corrupts big government big-time

frankRemember Aesop’s fable of the scorpion and the frog? A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back.  The frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion replies, “Because if I do, I will die, too.”

The frog is satisfied, and they set out. But in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but has just enough time to gasp,  “Why?”

Replies the scorpion: “It’s my nature…”

It is the nature of business to look out for itself. We understand that. We expect that.We accept that. Business will always (ALWAYS!) operate in its own best interest for its owners. The whole point of any business is to do just that: Tend solely to the interests of its owner(s). Period.scorpion-and-Frog

That’s why we have government: to look out for all of us, to promote our wellbeing and to protect us from harm, especially the weakest among us. Society also creates and operates charities to focus narrowly on aspects of helping people. It’s not in the interests of business to be charitable. Not unless there’s a benefit tax wise or public-relations-wise that can be counted in more dollars for the owners. It’s solely the interest of business to make the most money while spending the least amount of money to do so.

Though many who call themselves “conservative” tout such baloney as how “The Market” has some intrinsic mob-produced genius that keeps society and the economy slick and perfect, the truth is elsewhere. Market worshippers claim that the self interests of each person who enters The Market ensures that all are served to the best possible extent. Blather.

The truth is that The Market is corrupt. It’s manipulated largely by self-interested, control-freak, too-big-to-jail sociopaths who want all the chips for themselves and only enough for you to keep you serving their interests and comforts.

The rest of you can die. It’s for the good of the earth, don’tcha know. After all, you’re exhaling carbon dioxide and that, according to the current legend, is causing Global Warm… Ooops! Make that Climate Change! Ignore the simultaneous melting ice caps on Mars as part of this Climate Change and ignore that the sun with its current break from the historic sunspot cycle might be the Change culprit.

Here’s more mythology: Government can’t do anything right because it’s fat and lazy, slurping the gravy of tax money, so it takes the brilliance of private businesses to make truly rational decisions that serve both The Market (including we civilians) and the business owners. The result is excellence! Businesses prosper and The Market gets the best quality and price because of cutthroat competition to provide the best for the least.

We’re hearing that now as the Stephen Harper regime displays its adoration of the former dictator of Italy, Benito Mussolini. Big-money types and their media drones tout and perpetuate the myth that what Mussolini called “fascism” can make all run as smoothly as the fabled, timely Italian trains of the 1930s.

frankThe rationale for fascism was to intermingle business and government, with the latter being served by the former for the supposed aim of creating a better society. Businesses already had systems in place and government had the guns, the jails and coercive force to make good things happen for both sides. And only the public suffered.

The truth about the Italian trains in Mussolini’s time is that a few highly visible lines ran like clockwork and the rest were like Clockwork Orange.

It isn’t just Harperites selling out to business interests. It’s at all levels of government. The leading cause is a simple one. Money is required to campaign for office and too often it’s the party and candidate spending the most money who receives the most votes. So money buys the means to attract voters.

Those who spend most of that money are interested in tweaking government to increase their own profits.

It’s bribery, plain and simple, but cloaked as tax-deductible political “contributions.”

Money is the glue that gums up the works of democratic order.

The more money that’s involved, the more corruption is funded.

There’s no other way to look at it.