The New Social Contract ... Let them Die on the Line

After almost 250 years of existence, the corporate world has decided to move beyond gaining full citizenship rights for themselves to rewriting the social contract. No longer is it based on civil liberties, justice and the pursuit of happiness. Today it is merely the pursuit of maximum profits. What does the new contract then look like? In the simplest terms it is a dog eat dog world and you better hope you’re not wearing milkbone underwear. Corporations want to eliminate workers protection, healthcare benefits (at the business and governmental level), regulations on their activities (particularly when they are deleterious to the community, state, nation and/or globe), government oversight, taxes (personal and corporate), personal and corporate liability (in courts, through tort reform), public services of all kinds, and the latest … retirement itself.

The business world was never crazy about social security. Sure it took the homeless old people off the streets and their workers might someday claim it, but it meant people were alive who weren’t working. So now that the budget forecast has improved and talk of deficits taken a backseat, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will step up their efforts to attack Medicare and Social Security anew: Slate. Not retirement and healthcare programs they pay for; the ones the government does. It’s hard to understand such a ridiculous perspective unless you understand the victory of instrumental rationality and the ends (profits) justify any means (moral ambiguity or pure turpitude). We have entered a new phase where corporations work harder and harder to create a poor, ignorant, supplicant workforce that literally chops and shops until they die. Maybe it’s time for a serious dialogue about our national priorities?