We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore LappĆ©, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Business Roundtable Urges EPA to Stop Greenhouse Gas Rules

Click here to access article by Kim Chipman from Bloomberg News.

It is astonishing to read articles like this that illustrate how backward and narrow minded our corporate elites are.  The Business Roundtable is a powerful organization that CEOs use to promote their interests. They are very influential because they constitute a major source of funding of our so-called representatives in Congress, which, of course, are their representatives. But, that is how capitalist style democracy works. In contrast to this group, the American people feel otherwise:
A February poll... found 60 percent of people questioned said Congress shouldn’t stop the EPA rules and 35 percent thought lawmakers should bar the agency from limiting discharges of carbon dioxide, a primary greenhouse gas.
Although many corporations have record amounts of cash overflowing their coffers, they are so addicted to profits to the exclusion of every other consideration that they can't even tolerate the minimal government regulation that currently exists.