The draft of FixGov.

This chapter will focus on our society more closely and study the economy. One aspect of the economy in capitalism is the power of corporations (or "big money"). In this chapter we will explore the possibilities of reforming the corporative world to bring it more in balance with social and environmental issues.

Measurements proposed by FixGov:

- multinationals must be brought under control;
- remove the legal fiction that a corporation is a person;
- improper influence on government officials must be prevented;
- newspapers and broadcasters need to be freed from the control of corporate cartels;
- corporate efforts to undermine pure food laws must stop;
- agencies of the United Nations need to be prevented from operating in secrecy in behalf of multinational corporations;
- reform of the IMF must include keeping it out of politics;
- prevent multinational corporations from driving local inhabitants off their land;
- regional trade agreements such as NAFTA and global agreements such as GATT should not be ratified without enforceable protections of the environment and workers rights;
- steps should be taken by national and international authorities to stop the bidding war in which corporations extract subsidies, tax abatements, and exemption from environmental and human rights requirements;
- the "revolving door" for individuals who shuttle back and forth between government positions and corporate lobbying needs to be abolished;
- corporations should be prohibited from financing front organizations such as "think tanks" and purported grassroots organizations to advocate corporate interests;
- corporations should not be allowed to sponsor US presidential debates;
- people should be provided information on how to organize to deal with local issues;
- people who wish to do so should be encouraged to develop and put into practice local economies, beginning with local food economies, to shorten the distance between producers and consumers.

In our political section other suggestions were made:

- restricting the size of corporations and their market share;
- holding corporate officers financially and legally responsible for their actions;
- making corporate contributions to political campaigns illegal (public financing of elections);
- opening up corporate records to public scrutiny;
- 'true costing' of products to include the costs of environmental regulation and clean-up.

the complete draft of Richard Stimson >>>