America’s Top Five Corporations

According to our U.S. Supreme Court the corporation politically speaking is to be treated the same as a US citizen or person. And, that money spent on political campaigns is a form of freedom of speech. I know, deep down, and so do you, that both of these decisions are neither right nor just in a true democracy. But both decisions are the law of the land and until changed, we must continue to live with this reality. Together however they have resulted in a situation which allows giant corporations to buy what they want from the peoples’ legislatures.

National and state efforts to equalize the playing field between the corporation and the individual citizen are obviously, not working. Nevertheless given this reality how can we begin to humanize and gain some measure of control of this artificial human? When are we, the American people, going to wake and begin to tame this grasping and non-feeling “paper” tiger? When are we going to rise up and together say, “We are just not going to take this anymore?” In spite of Senators McCain and Feingold, God bless them, for the foreseeable future corporations will continue, big time, to buy and control the media and our representatives. Until public finance campaign reform efforts eventually succeed, what action can we take to mollify this monster? I propose that we become much smarter and vigilant.

Given the existing playing field, I propose that we begin to more accurately judge the giant corporation based on its actual monetary deeds and not its corpulent public relations or advertising budget that continues to dumb us down and make us feel alienated and powerless as citizens. First lets get a law passed that makes every giant U.S. corporation which is owned and operated by US citizens begin to pay its fair share regardless of where it is incorporated. And while we are waiting to make this the law of the land, and to help the corporation to begin to earn our respect and trust once again, lets begin to track its “community giving” with some hard quantifiable numbers. Let a corporation’s “social capital” be judged against the following two ratios. The amount contributed to the community divided by its net profit. The amount invested in the community divided by the amount awarded its top management or CEOs.

What ever ratios are selected, like the NY stock exchange, lets choose the most accountable indexes (percent of giving based on total worth) we can find and have the top five hundred corporations routinely report their “community goodwill or performance” results. Let us, we the people, through our representative, based upon the five highest rankings, yearly pass a congressional resolution honoring the top five as the American peoples “Top Five Corporations.” If you are reading this and believe you have a better idea, then, for heaven sake let’s hear it. I am morally outraged with the status quo. If you feel like I do, please let the editor of this newspaper hear from you.