In 1803, Lacey Brown was born. Evidence shows that he was a “Freed Man.” He had Nick Brown who married a Cherokee Woman. They had Lacey Brown II who married Martha Franklin. They had John Brown (1894 to 1957). He married Eliza Lucenda Blue (1899-1966). They had Jean Julia Brown who married William Jackson Williams II (Picture June 28, 1941) who had me.
When the Browns came to Stoney Point (A Free Union), they knew that ownership of Land was important in controlling their own destiny. They bought and controlled so much land in Stoney point over the past 200 years that they called part of it “Brown Town.” To this day, they still believe in such control and rightfully so. But in the age of corporations, a new way to control society has begun.
In the 1950s, Andrew Hacker saw the rise of unemployment due to corporate structural problems. He said that the corporation was made central to the nation’s economy. Another economist A. A. Berle pointed out in his paper “economic Power and the Free Society”, that one half of the US manufacturing goods and the 500 largest corporations own two-thirds of the productive assets of the United States. But the small business community has most of the working and entrepreneurial population. In the 1950s, most small business was independent of big business.
I believe that the problem started when the corporate raiders started buying out and taking over corporations on a daily bases starting in the 1960s and came to a head in the early 1990s. At that time multi-nation corporations became too big for any government to regulate or control. You saw that with the Enron Scandal and the bank and corporate bailouts.
One danger that A. A. Berle told us in the med 20th Century is that a pension fund of a large corporation is able to buy up the stock of its parent company and can come close to having a controlling interest. That means that management can become responsible to itself there by become self controlling. In such a case, the corporation would stop being innovative and will just exist for top management only. Is this what happened to the US Auto industry except for Ford Motor Company? Is this what happened to General Motors? Being too big to fail and management responsible to itself this reason why they had to be bailed out?
Andrew Hacker believed that organizations such as the American Medical Association, United Automobile Workers, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Legion only participate in the struggle for political and economic to help its members in a democratic society. The institutions are its members. But IBM, General Motors, Xerox, and AT&T are not voluntary associations with individuals as members. They are associations of labor, assets, and no theory has declared that machines are entitled to a voice in the democratic process. Neither our constitutional law nor our political theories are able to account for the corporate presence in the arena of social power.
Corporations do not participate in politics in a meaningful way and lack the defenses that protect the old middle class. They are your shop keepers, business owners, and etc. The new middle class are created by and absorbed into the corporate structure. They are dependent on the good will of the organization employing it. Middle class employees are riding the crest of waves made by the corporation. Members of this middle class felt free, enjoying opportunities that their parents never experienced. Now that the Depression of the Early 21st Century has arrived, they are seeing that their power and wealth can disappear quickly without the help of these corporations.
From the 1970s to the present, Corporations have found that they can function with fewer employees, creating larger profits for stockholders and upper management. Corporate leaders have also found out that sending production to countries with lower price labor can also be beneficial to the Organization. This imports unemployment to the United States and with it, a drop in the American Standard of Living.
In the 2010 elections, we saw political repercussions of this by the voter. The “Tea Party” is a result of the anger and frustration in the States and the Federal Government to bring down the National and the State unemployment rate. In my opinion, the Tea Party will be able to elect state and federal officials but if they want to stay in office, they must satisfy the same Corporate Legal People that caused the American Economic Crises in the first place. A very small group of people in the corporation direct the assets of the organization. They decide how much to spend, what products are to be made, where they are to be manufactured, and who is to participate in the processes of production.
A single corporation like US Steel can draw up an investment program calling for the expenditure of billions of dollars on new plants and products. A decision like this may determine the quality of life for a substantial segment of society or in countries like China or India. Old communities in the United States such as Homestead, Pittsburgh, and Duquesne can and has deteriorated to the point of insolvency. People and material will move across continents, tastes and habits will alter, new skills in an area will be in demand, schools and education will be adjusted accordingly, and governments will fall into line, providing public services that the corporation needs. That is the power of a corporation. The machines of the corporation are the primary mover and they cannot be made accountable for their actions. They have momentum but no morality.
The recent banking, oil, and poison food problems should have taught you that public agencies set up to regulate private enterprise are soon brought to a close sympathy with the industry they are supposed to regulate. In fact, the same people who work for the public agencies leave and work for the agencies that they regulated. Yet others leave the corporation and go work for the public agencies then go back to the corporation. With this relationship corporations maintain a favorable climate for themselves. We are taught that the Anti-Trust Division of the Justice Department could “break-up” the corporations that over extend themselves against the American people. In fact, the government is weaker than the corporations.
In my opinion, it looks like two Americas are emerging. One is a society protected by the corporate umbrella and the other is a society whose members have failed to affiliate themselves with the dominant institution in the area. These failed people will be the unemployable, the ill-educated, and the people who are not simply needed by the corporation. If this pool of rejected people grows and finds political leadership, a force can rise to challenge the corporation. The last time that happened, Hitler came to power in the Depression of the 20th Century and started the greatest war in Human History!
In my opinion, it looks like two Americas are emerging. One is a society protected by the corporate umbrella and the other is a society whose members have failed to affiliate themselves with the dominant institution in the area. These failed people will be the unemployable, the ill-educated, and the people who are not simply needed by the corporation. If this pool of rejected people grows and finds political leadership, a force can rise to challenge the corporation. The last time that happened, Hitler came to power in the Depression of the 20th Century and started the greatest war in Human History!
Now what are you going to do about this? We have studied the basics about Corporation rights. I have an answer for you in the next blog. I told you about my family. This is a clue to what you can do to take back your rights and become wealthy along the way!
Who is reading this blog?
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South Korea-----------------------4.14%
Canada----------------------------2.39%
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China------------------------------1%
Denmark----------------------------.64%
United Kingdom---------------------.64%
There are other countries that read the blog but they are not in the top 10 of the blog readership.