Corporate America in Repose

As the OWS protests are broken apart by mayors and the courts, the economy continues to mire in recession and crisis, the middle class feels increasingly squeezed with the holiday season looming, debt heaps and the world around us seems ready to implode, corporate America goes on undaunted by any nod to reality. A few stories just today highlight the depths of their tone deafness to anything except the bottom line:

1. America has always prided itself on Freedom of Speech, even as we have plenty of examples of its limitations. The Internet has largely remained unscathed by attempts to censor it ... until now! Congress is currently considering a bill that would allow the government to force Internet providers to block sites "on suspicion" of copyright infringement. Not for inciting violence, not for providing information on doctor's who work at abortion center's personal addresses, not for providing completely false or incendiary information -- no, just copyright infringement, which, of course, can hurt business (and gov't). The law, if enacted, could not only block access to Wikileaks, but much of Web 2.0, including You Tube and many progressive sites: Why is Justin Bieber So Pissed Off?. Essentially, it allows corporations to serve as judge, jury and executioner of the Web for not only the U.S. but much of the world (also see the Center for Democracy & Technology: CDT).

2. Two bills before Congress right now appear aimed at undermining much of the regulation already on the books: Citizenvox. The first, the REINS Act, would require Congressional approval of all rules within 70 days. Yet the obvious question is whether Congress can do anything in 70 days and why we need a silly bill like this in the first place. The second, the Regulatory Reform Act, while sold as a positive attempt to reform the rulemaking process, would in fact make regulation of any kind even harder to enact. The argument is, of course, that Corporate America is saddled by unnecessary regulations (like limiting pollution, not imperiling employees or citizens, that products actually contain what they say they contain, that they provide ample warnings, that they not openly lie or mislead the public, etc.) that undermines their profitability and willingness or ability to hire new workers. The problem is profit are up; it's just that they aren't hiring. And the other problem is that there is little evidence that regulation undermines profitability to begin with (particularly given the sustained economic growth that followed the "regulation-happy" New Deal).

3. Worried that the price of providing food to our children in public schools will increase, Republicans are reduxing one of Reagan's infamous food redefinition initiatives. In the previous case, Reagan famously called ketchup a vegetable. Now Republicans want to call Pizza a vegetable. Pizza? Are you serious? Well, who cares that are kids are suffering from a major obesity problem? We need to keep prices down and make sure companies can continue to supply junk food to our kids. 

When insanity is the norm; jesters become kings.