I don't give a healthy crap about the selfish national group known as stockholders, Ken. They're as piggish and greedy and selfish as the corps. they bow down to. Since when did the needs of a community/state/nation be superceded by the greed of an ever-growing, more demanding faceless corporation? These would be the corps. that: bank off-shore to avoid their responsibilities as U.S. taxpayers, which in turn means they are accepting and using all manner of local and state resources without contributing their fair share to the maintenance, upkeep, and delivery of those resources: police, fire, water, sewer, trash, electric, gas, schools, libraries, roads, bridges, etc. These are the corps that hire armies of accountants and tax lawyers to find every conceivable loop-hole to avoid paying their fair share, that you and I and our neighbors cannot afford to. These are the corps. that have bought Congress, and managed to get the U.S. Supreme Court to alter/revoke the rules of the game, tilting the field to the corps. advantage. We now live in a plutocracy, the United Business States of America. We are lucky to retain the few freedoms we have. Everything else we once knew is an illusion. Six major corporations own and are responsible in our once-great country for 1500 newspapers, 1100 magazines, 9000 radio stations, 1500 t.v. stations, and 2400 publishers. Where's the diversity, the individuality, the willingness to point at Washington, D.C. and say STOP! or ask questions, or investigate. There is very little individuality left in America, Ken. Our malls, strip malls, fast food joints, our cars, retail box stores, WM with its $7 Billion taxpayer subsidy, all look-alikes in a look-alike, PC world, a socialist world of conformity and quiet compliance.
For every shareholder who benefitted from a stock deal, there are more losers that have been hurt. For every corp. acquisition, there are people out of work whose losses spiral throughout their communities. We're out of balance, sir. Do you like the direction America has been in, for years? I sure don't. The middle class, responsible for supporting the other two, has all but disappeared. Community school districts across the nation are struggling to educate. Tax and Spend has been the applied response, but that has never worked, isn't working, will never work.