Hello and welcome to the Think Tank.
A recent subject of hot political debate has been the January 21, 2010 Supreme court rejection of the corporate spending limit. This means that Corporations have all the first amendment rights that we enjoy.
In one corner you have Libertarians who believe in a "free monetary" democracy. They believe that the dollar is just as vital to the voting process as the actual voting is. The candidate who gets more financing should have an advantage because he is favored by the business sector and the engines of our modern society.
In the other corner you have Reformers who believe in "one person, one vote" democracy. The reformers have been pushing for publicly funded elections in order to level the playing field, without smear campaigns fogging the voter's head. They argue that Labor unions and Corporations can now dominate the media with fast, deadly attack ads that candidates couldn't respond to.
The third corner are conservatives that believe that the limitation of money a corporation or special interest group can spend to make their political point is censorship and violates their right to free speech. "Corporate power and influence aren't inherently corrupting... as long as they're part of a vibrant debate within an open marketplace of ideas." (Christian science monitor)
Recent court rulings have been favoring the more reformist point of view however when Citizens United, a corporation, wanted to air a controversial political documentary on Hillary Clinton and was shot down by the Federal Election Commission they appealed to the supreme court which now leans conservatively 5-4. The ruling was a 5-4 decision in favor of Citizens United which overturned a hundred year old ruling against a corporation's right to free speech.
But while partisan lines are drawn and the attention of the media goes toward the health care decision a few unexpected consequences of the ruling are brewing in Maryland. A Corporation is actually running for office. Murray Hill Inc. is running in the 8th district of Maryland for congress. While it is a satirical election campaign and mixes an add campaign with its candidacy the corporation has made a big splash because, frankly, it is now legal.
Their website is even more hilarious but people are realizing that they can legally run for office. This Supreme Court ruling has potential to completely change what we hear about our candidates and who we hear it from. Needless to say our republic is walking a fine line.
So I ask you, The Corporation: a Place or a Person? Post thoughts below.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Quote Discussion:
Welcome to the Think Tank. This is a new segment that I have been given permission to start up. The idea is that I will post a quote on here and then we can have a discussion pertaining to the quote. We can talk about how we interpret the quote, if we agree or not, why we agree or not, the ideas behind the quote, pretty much anything relevant. The point is to think and share ideas. The first installment will have a quote from a personal favorite philosopher, Sir Bertrand Russell:
"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong." -Bertrand Russell
What do you think?
"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong." -Bertrand Russell
What do you think?
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Haiti: The Poorest Nation in the Western Hemisphere
Hello and welcome to the Think Tank.
This post is about Haiti. No it is not an article about the horrible earthquake that flattened their capital. It is not about the predicted thousands of people who died. And it is not about the heroic struggle of individuals trying to survive. This article is about Haiti's future, why they are so incredibly poor, and how this event could completely destroy the country.
First I must point out that the basis of Haiti's economy is agriculture. Two thirds of their population depends on the agricultural sector. They have a massive trade deficit and little to no outlook economically. Because of a shrinking economy, the government has little money to invest in infrastructure and is in massive debt. The result is horrible poverty. Haiti's poverty is so incredibly bad, their poor have begun eating dirt.
But wait a minute. Why is the economy stagnant?
The answer is not pretty.
It's kind of our fault.
See, the US has lots of these things called subsidies. A subsidy is when a government supplements the income of corporations or workers in an industry in exchange for a lowering of the price of the good that the industry produces. Subsidies are good for the country because they make their product more competitive on the global market. The consequence of these subsidies unfortunately is that countries will import the subsidized good over the non subsidized good because it is cheaper. This ends up being devastating for the poorer countries that cannot afford large government subsidies of their own.
Below is a chart showing the different agricultural products that the U.S subsidizes.
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Now let me list the agricultural exports from Haiti in 1990:coffee and sugarcane; rice, corn, sorghum, mangoes
The US makes some of the top money making crops virtually useless because we spend more on subsidies than they can ever dream of. Add to that the Brazilian and Venezuelan subsidies on sugarcane, a tightening of outside investment following an economic crash, and a little political turmoil, and you get a severely disadvantaged country.
What this earthquake has just done is demolished most of the infrastructure built over the last twenty years. Haiti is already strapped for cash and doesn't have enough money to even come close to fixing this mess. Hospitals crumbled, schools crumbled, lives crumbled and at best the stability and future of this country look bleak.
This post is about Haiti. No it is not an article about the horrible earthquake that flattened their capital. It is not about the predicted thousands of people who died. And it is not about the heroic struggle of individuals trying to survive. This article is about Haiti's future, why they are so incredibly poor, and how this event could completely destroy the country.
First I must point out that the basis of Haiti's economy is agriculture. Two thirds of their population depends on the agricultural sector. They have a massive trade deficit and little to no outlook economically. Because of a shrinking economy, the government has little money to invest in infrastructure and is in massive debt. The result is horrible poverty. Haiti's poverty is so incredibly bad, their poor have begun eating dirt.
But wait a minute. Why is the economy stagnant?
The answer is not pretty.
It's kind of our fault.
See, the US has lots of these things called subsidies. A subsidy is when a government supplements the income of corporations or workers in an industry in exchange for a lowering of the price of the good that the industry produces. Subsidies are good for the country because they make their product more competitive on the global market. The consequence of these subsidies unfortunately is that countries will import the subsidized good over the non subsidized good because it is cheaper. This ends up being devastating for the poorer countries that cannot afford large government subsidies of their own.
Below is a chart showing the different agricultural products that the U.S subsidizes.
.svg.png)
Now let me list the agricultural exports from Haiti in 1990:coffee and sugarcane; rice, corn, sorghum, mangoes
The US makes some of the top money making crops virtually useless because we spend more on subsidies than they can ever dream of. Add to that the Brazilian and Venezuelan subsidies on sugarcane, a tightening of outside investment following an economic crash, and a little political turmoil, and you get a severely disadvantaged country.
What this earthquake has just done is demolished most of the infrastructure built over the last twenty years. Haiti is already strapped for cash and doesn't have enough money to even come close to fixing this mess. Hospitals crumbled, schools crumbled, lives crumbled and at best the stability and future of this country look bleak.
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