Bitcoin Forum

In their newly released study, the Northeastern economists found that since the recovery began in June 2009 following a deep 18-month recession, “corporate profits captured 88 percent of the growth in real national income while aggregate wages and salaries accounted for only slightly more than 1 percent” of that growth.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/the-wageless-profitable-recovery/

http://www.clms.neu.edu/publication/documents/Revised_Corporate_Report_May_27th.pdf

Business as usual.

The obvious solution is to remove all regulation and let corporations do whatever they want.

would be funny if only it wasnt

I wouldn't suppose hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts would have anything to do with this.

Yeah, it's not like printing money and handing it directly to the corporations is anything that could of been prevented, if there wasn't a monopoly on the wealth in the first place.

This is the sad reality of what government internvetion produces. A bunch of thieves.


Regulations should be removed so corporations stop doing whatever they want. Regulations allow corporations to avoid competition.

That doesn't amount to a gnat pissing in the ocean when you factor in the fact that the entire system is setup to allow them to profit no matter what.

The entire system. Such as the government controlled and regulated monetary system.

Thanks for providing my argument.

Never thought of it that way. I guess Federal reserve notes are literally monopoly money.

No no, you quite misunderstand.  The system is corporation controlled, that's why the corporations are the ones swimming in money no matter how bad everyone else has it.

"The corporations finance Team America. And then Team America goes out, and the corporations sit there, in their, their corporation buildings, and they make money"

It's a simple ROI equation. All people can use corruption lobbying to their benefit, it's not only legal it's mandatory.

Corporations donate to Political Campaigns.  Corporations Lobby for regulations.  Regulations are enacted.  Regulations are selectively enforced(not enforced on contributors).  Profit.

Rinse.  Repeat.

This.

Corporations lobby for the REMOVAL of regulations.

You obviously don't see the big picture of how Corporations interact with Governments(especially in the US).  Regulations are Lobbied for to restrict the little guy while the big guy slides and continues to reap big profits.  This is how small operations are put out of business.  Stores, Farms, ect.

That doesn't explain why they constantly lobby against regulation.  Can you cite me some regulations that big business has actually lobbied FOR?

A brazillian one:

TecToy lobbied for regulations against imported videogames.


Now to buy a videogame in Brazil, you pay 273% taxes, and no national manufacturer make decent videogame, thus it killed the entire videogame market, and drove piracy and smuggling.



Another brazillian one:

Regulations about financial institutions got so strict over time, that now is almost impossible to stabilish any financial business here (reason why I never made a bitcoin exchange here), to the point that Goldman & Sachs could not stand the regulations and did not joined the market.

People might think: Someone screwing Goldman? That is nice!



No, it is not, because the result is a banking monopoly, where the biggest bank (created before the regulations, by the way), profited record profits last year (10 billion USD) while everyone else is slumping.


Another brazillian one:

Banks are obliged to deposit part of their money on the central bank. Thus everyone must run a fractional reserve. (thus fractional reserve proponents like that, while non-fractional reserve are screwed).


Another brazillian one:

All internships must give life insurance, even if the intern refuse, he is to be insured anyway. (I think you can figure who lobbied for that).

http://www.usitc.gov/

It exists to protect big American businesses.  Most countries have something similar.

Only one of those was specifically quoted as being lobbied for by an existing company.

Is that the only one you've got?  Come up with a bunch, because I've got plenty of examples of corporations lobbying AGAINST regulation.

Oh yeah, I forgot the most batshit crazy US-made regulation from lobbies:

DMCA

The Trade Commission is not regulation, it's... the Trade Commission. 

Regulations are... well... regulations.  Like this...

http://www.polluterwatch.com/blog/big-oil-front-group-poured-millions-lobby-against-fracking-regulation

http://www.smh.com.au/business/stockbrokers-to-lobby-politicians-in-battle-against-tougher-regulations-20110627-1gnen.html

http://crooksandliars.com/2008/09/22/mccain-campaign-manager-paid-millions-to-lobby-against-regulation-on-behalf-of-fannie-freddie

http://www.cruiselawnews.com/2010/03/articles/lobbying/cruise-industry-spent-400000-last-quarter-lobbying-against-safety-environmental-regulations/

http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/04/08/how-the-war-against-the-epa-has-helped-lead-to-a-budget-showdown/

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/management/article6605643.ece

http://info.babymilkaction.org/update/update42page6

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/tabcorp-warns-against-regulation/story-fn7j19iv-1226067360330

http://conservationalabama.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/resolution-against-regulation-of-greenhouse-gases-passes/

Animal ID Act, Premises ID Act.

How many Big Pharma Lobbyists have successfully gotten harmful drugs onto the market at the expense of current safe alternatives *cough* Aspartame *cough*.

How many times have we seen Lobbyists go after Alternative Health/Nutrition Suppliments to have them taken off the market or removing their ability advertised publicly their benefits.

A few of many many examples.

Actually you've got it backwards.  Big Pharm and the like lobby to PREVENT regulation that would keep stuff like Aspartame out of foods.  The EU told big business to go pound sand and now stuff like chemical food coloring and Aspartame are banned or restricted over there.  
http://naturalpainreliefforfibromyalgia.com/312

The oh so business friendly US would never dream of establishing regulations that would remove harmful items from food, so we get Red #40 and Aspartame while the EU gets beet juice and cane sugar.


Of course businesses will occasionally lobby to directly shut down the competition, but that's a rare day (as your total lack of citations shows).  However, lobbying AGAINST regulation designed to protect the consumer is a daily occurence and is what lobbiests primarily exist for.

Considering that Big Pharma produced Aspartame and would never lobby to regulate it other than to increase its use I can only deduce you lack an understanding of the underlying concepts we are discussing.  I see no further use discussing the matter with you and I will stick to responding to other posters.

Feel free to look up the history of Aspartame, its health effects, and its path into the houses of almost every American Family. 

Done.

"Actually you've got it backwards.  Big Pharm and the like lobby to PREVENT regulation that would keep stuff like Aspartame out of foods"

I guess you lack reading comprehension because you said exactly what I just said and made it sound like you're arguing against me.  Key words bolded.