Six years ago I went to work for a small (~100 employee) startup. Three years ago that startup was acquired by Intel, so for the last three years I've been an Intel employee. Last January Intel cancelled my project and laid me off.
So here I am at 58, seven years from retirement, unemployed, not because I was lazy or bad at my job, but because people I've never laid eyes on, people whose names I don't know, people who don't even know I exist, decided they needed to cut costs. And because I'm 58 and ageism is a real thing in this industry, the odds of anyone else hiring me are very low. 58 is awfully late in life to be forced to start over.
The problem with corporations is that by design they provide a virtually impenetrable barrier between one set of humans (the owners of the corporation) and another set of humans (the employees). This has benefits, of course, but it also has one very serious drawback, which is that it allows the first set of humans to treat the second set like a commodity, no different from wheat or pork bellies, but not the other way around. This asymmetry disempowers employees, robs them of their agency and personhood. And all this happens by design.
It really should come as no surprise to anyone that one of the side effects of this system is a lot of depressed people.
- significantly diminish limited liability. If your corp causes a chemical spill that kills many people, the executives should be put on trial for mass murder.
This change creates a large incentive to do the right thing -- like not implicitly killing.
These corporations are not people. They are run by people. We need to start holding those people accountable for their actions. We need to start naming them and attaching their names to the disasters they are causing.
If you are the head of an oil company when a massive spill occurs, not only should you live in poverty for the rest of your life, but you should probably be in a jail cell for the rest of your life as well for being a danger to society in the pursuit of personal riches.
If we can throw people in prison for carrying certain rocks for all their life, I think this is more than reasonable.
- how these are causing the current status quo and
- explain what you believe are the expected effects.
It's an internet comment, not an academic essay, so you can just refer to things -- but you're in a diverse forum where most people aren't going to instantly recall the established zeitgeist you're trying to evoke. Many of us aren't familiar with your zeitgeist, so sparse references to it mean nothing to us.
I have no idea what you mean by "citizenship". I don't know what problems this is causing, what the change would look like, and why that would be expected to improve the problem.
Corporations are no longer beholden to governmental and regulatory bodies. Educational institutions, news agencies, etc simply echo corporate approved information.
Watch 60 minutes and see a “news” story that is really just an info commercial for a new weight loss drug presented as journalism.
The public discourse is now dominated by corporate safe “progressive” topics. Race, gender, identity .. etc all safe.. progressive issues like unions, wealth inequality, bank reforms … nope those are not okay.
It’s depressing because faith is waning in the U.S. as a society and as a government.
> Watch 60 minutes and see a “news” story that is really just an info commercial for a new weight loss drug presented as journalism.
This has existed since TV was originally invented. Ads used to be content...and often still is. I hate it too but I'm not sure this is what I'd point to for "A-ha! Here's the reason depression is suddenly skyrocketing!", when it's been true for 70 years running.
