One aspect of predatory capitalism that I'm just beginning to understand is unfolding courtesy of
huge, complex trade agreements like the Trans Pacific Partnership, TPP. As certain news reports are beginning to indicate, treaties that were designed to protect corporations from having their assets seized by greedy nations are being used to flip the tables. Now wealthy investors can overcome entire nations through litigation to recover lost profits when those nations try to protect their people (like through limits on smoking, or rejecting damaging projects like the XL Pipeline.)
It's not really that hard to turn nations into cash machines through legal extortion if you have money and no scruples! Democracies depend on open debate between various parties, a long, messy and public process and are financed only through taxes. But corporations have no such scruples and can not only use draconian, secret, sophisticated tools to dupe democratic nations, they have the endless resources to do so. Through secret
negotiations they can position themselves to charge governments for
putting people before profits and there is no recourse. With huge resources, a corporation like Phillip Morris ($80 B) can extort money out of a nation like Uruguay ($50 B) without much trouble if it tries to protect its people. Furthermore, once investors hear about the money to be made by extorting taxpayers, such corporate resources become nearly bottomless. Then they can hit even the U.S.!
Once wealthy players have a grip on treaties, then infiltrating courts, governments and even educational systems are just a matter of details. Without some means of limiting the power of pirates through some sort of human-based international law, the strong will win, just like in any competative system. What is being created is a world of slavery. (We can already see this in the worldwide explosion in income inequality. I see much concern about this and no action! Even Obama, mysteriously, is touting the TPP, though he's being sued through it. Is that suspicious or is it just me?)
Can we stop it? Yes, that is what universal human rights is about, constructing intstitutions based on human beings' needs. But once we lose the human as the center of value and raise money or even efficiency to prominence, all bets are off and the strong (criminal greed) will ultimately win. One idea to build a system that allows humans to survive. That's what my vision of a Democratic Globe is meant to answer. Any others out there?
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| "Looking Forward", charcoal by Tim Holmes |
Once wealthy players have a grip on treaties, then infiltrating courts, governments and even educational systems are just a matter of details. Without some means of limiting the power of pirates through some sort of human-based international law, the strong will win, just like in any competative system. What is being created is a world of slavery. (We can already see this in the worldwide explosion in income inequality. I see much concern about this and no action! Even Obama, mysteriously, is touting the TPP, though he's being sued through it. Is that suspicious or is it just me?)
Can we stop it? Yes, that is what universal human rights is about, constructing intstitutions based on human beings' needs. But once we lose the human as the center of value and raise money or even efficiency to prominence, all bets are off and the strong (criminal greed) will ultimately win. One idea to build a system that allows humans to survive. That's what my vision of a Democratic Globe is meant to answer. Any others out there?
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