While reading some of the political blogs, I keep coming across comments that talk about how we need to focus on business.  Get business back on track.  Make it easier for businesses to be profitable.  Do that and all will be well...

When did we become a nation of corporations?  When did the profitability of Exxon, Haliburton, and Walmart supersede the need for families to be able to raise their children?  When did the bottom-line of Pfizer become more important than the health of the people of this nation? 

I just don't get it...  It doesn't have to be an all or nothing proposition.  I'm not a socialist by any stretch.  However, I believe the recent events in banking, mortgages, energy, and other businesses have shown better than anything the reality that businesses cannot be expected to regulate themselves in a socially responsible way.

I don't think that's always been the case.  Back in the day when companies were local -- when the bank president knew all of his customers by name; when the family that ran the grocery store / post office / telephone exchange was the information nexus of the community; when the family business was the norm -- then yes, what was good for business was good for America. 

Today, however, when the CFO of Gigantoworld declares that 5000 jobs need to be cut so that the company's performance meets Wall Street's expectations, he doesn't even see the single mother who is now unemployed, or the senior citizen working to pay for his medications, or the student struggling to make a better life for himself.  All he sees a bottom line for the company that is decidedly at odds with the bottom line of the individuals his decision has just impacted.

So,  you may ask, what about the stockholders?  Don't they deserve to make money on their investments?  Sure.  If a company is not performing to your expectations as a shareholder, then sell the shares.  If the company is not profitable, it will go under.  However, if a company is making a profit, cutting jobs simply to improve those profits seems morally vacuous.

What's the answer? 

A well regulated stock market, for starters.  Eliminate the day traders.  Require minimum investments -- not only in terms of how many dollars, but for minimum lengths of time, too.  Get rid of speculative investing.  Simplify the investments sold so that people can actually understand what they are investing in.

After that, reasonably regulated -- and yes, in some cases constrained -- business practices, especially for large corporations.  Regulations that protect the living wage and livelihoods of people are more important than regulations that enable corporate profit.  We've all heard stories about "big box" stores coming in and wiping out small businesses.  How does this concentration of wealth and constriction of market help America?  It doesn't.  The reality is that fewer people are employed, at lower wages, by the "big box" stores than were employed at the "mom-and-pop" shops.  Product quality drops.  Service standards drop.  Standards of living drop, and money flows out of the community into the bank accounts of stockholders and corporate executives.

Finally, caps on executive salaries.  OK -- I know, people should have a right to benefit from their success.  I agree.  It is only natural that the greater the reward, the greater the effort put forth will be.  However -- executives who make tens or hundreds of millions of dollars per year when the average wage of their employees is insufficient to support a family is an imbalance that is, in my mind, unconscionable.  Michael Arjona's article points out that, until the late 1980's, CEO compensation remained between 30 and 40 times that of the median income.  Now?  It's more than 100 times median. 

Every $1,000,000.00 of executive salary equates to approximately $480.00/hour.  With average CEO compensation (including salary, bonuses, and other perks) now at around $12.6 million for the Fortune 500 CEOs, how many $20.00/hour positions could be funded if each of them took a $1million dollar reduction?  Let's see -- that's 480/20*500 = 12,000 good paying jobs.

We need to realign our priorities.  What's good for people is good for America.  It's time to revert to government of, by and for the PEOPLE.