All this discussion of the economy in general and global finance in
particular appears, at least superficially, to somewhat off topic. But
too many of us aren't going to find any work that will produce
sustance unless some institution with (relatively, at least) a lot of
money will give us jobs. Recent posts have evinced a growing
awareness that the financial system has become uncoupled from any
humane sense of "economy" and is increasingly wagging the dog. So if
we want paid "work" available as an alternative to subsistence or
survival work, we have to find ways to govern the finance and trade to
social ends.
I forwarded one of these posts to Spider Robinson and recieved the
reply below, pleasingly somewhat less temperate than his rendition of
the idea in his Globe & Mail column. What's the synthesis of the
heterogeneous ideas:
Tax financial transactions
Deprive large corporations of legal personhood
Do NOT put local enterprises and TNCs on a level playing field
Make stock ownership a way to finance useful stuff, not speculation
etc....
Here's what Spider said:
I still like my idea. Simply set a firm MINIMUM time one may
hold a share of stock before unloading it. Start with a
year...then when the screams die down, increase it to two...then
to three. We just CANNOT continue to leave direction & control
of all our industries in the hands of gangs of passing looters,
who have no long-term stake in the game.
You want to buy a share in my company? Fine...but you're stuck
with it for an absolute minimum of a year. You gotta want this
company to do well...not for the next fifteen minutes, but for at
least the next year. If all you're interested in is the next
fifteen minutes' cash receipts, and what you can pawn the office
furniture for, get your thieving hand out of my fucking pocket
and clear out so we can get some WORK done.
I will just never understand why any honest company ever "goes
public." Nobler to admit, "I'm a failure; my business went
broke," than to hand over control to a bunch of anonymous
footpads whom you KNOW will bleed the employees and customers
white. Wiring your bribe to that account in the Caymans must be
a meager consolation, to anyone who started out wanting to sell
the public a decent product at a fair price. Congratulations:
you've turned an honest steak into a tempting but hollow
chocolate bunny. Decisions henceforward will be made by people
who don't give a rat's ass about the company or the product or
the employees or you or anything at all except the quoted stock
price at this moment. You've become an accidental convenience
for gambling ignoramuses. Like one of those stupid MardiGras
necklaces: so intensely desired that a woman will show a stranger
her tits for one...but only right now this second. Tomorrow, all
the dumpsters will be full of necklaces.
Madness.
- Mike
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Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
URL: http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/mspencer/home.html
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