[GPSCC-chat] FW: [Occupy PA] PALO ALTO: Move to Amend California Barnstorming Tour Sunday 11:00 am

Sun Feb 12 16:35:42 PST 2012

I did finally decide to go to this talk.  I agree with everything that David Cobb says about the US building an Empire by using corporations (starting with the 13 colonies that were themselves corporations). However, I did point out during Q+A that Move To Amend Section 1 is unacceptable.  David Cobb didn't want to debate the issue.  He merely said "I don't think I can convince you that my position is right, but I don't think that MTA Section 1 will take away the rights of [small businesses] as you suggest it will".  I told him that with a fundamental disagreement like that, it may be up to the courts to decide if the cops can invade a small business without a warrant if MTA Section 1 passes. (Currently, the US Supreme Court has recently ruled that a warrant is required for an OSHA inspection, though the people petitioning for the warrant don't have to show probable cause that a violation of law is taking place, they merely have to show that the
 inspection is authorized under some section of law or other.) I think Cobb's basic message is right on. I just don't see that the way forward includes MTA Section 1. 

If it were popular for small investors to organize into voting blocks at stockholders' meetings, a way forward might include using a nonprofit to organize stockholders.  Unfortunately the market trend seems to be away from buying the type of stock that gives individual investors a say at stockholders' meetings and towards allowing a corporation to be run by an unaccountable board of directors.  You may see me working on this line of attack a bit more in the near future, even though it does go against the grain so to speak.  See the end of this e-mail for the proposal about this that I received recently.

Section 2 of MTA is fine. I have no problem with saying that money is not speech only during an election.  I neglected to bring my "Small Businesses Are People Too" fliers, but that's the breaks I guess.  They do offer free food for first time participants, but I decided to make my weekly trek to the big bad coporation called Marie Callendars for their Sunday Brunch instead. 

John Thielking

The Shareholder Empowerment Project

Mission Statement [The Shareholder Empowerment Directive]:
Our purpose is to empower shareholders of publicly held corporations. We will enable shareholders to acknowledge the power of their corporate enfranchisement, facilitating the shareholders in communicating the principles they want to guide all future corporate ventures. We will coordinate these votes so that the shareholders can be heard in unity. Ultimately, shareholders will be left completely fulfilled in their responsibility as owners.

What is currently the case:
There are three things you get when you own stock: you get a stock that has a market price, you get a periodic dividend, and you get an annual vote for the board of directors. Currently, the vast majority of shareholders focus on the market price & dividends of the stock they own, and when the annual shareholder ballot comes in the mail, they simply throw it in the trash. If they are curious, they will look at the ballot; realize that they have only one option to cast their vote for, and then either throw out the ballot or vote for the pre-selected candidate. These are the most frequent actions of those people who OWN public corporations, and these actions send one message to their servants, the board of directors: keep doing what you are doing, whatever it happens to be.

What a future without intervention looks like:
This is the way it has been for decades, and is likely to continue. The effect of this pattern of shareholder behavior is simple: the board of directors will fulfill the most basic mandate of corporate existence – pursue profit for profit’s own sake. When shareholders are silent about what they care about, and silent about where they want their company to head, what you are left with is the world we have today: 
	* A world where corporations do cost-benefit analysis comparing the cost of fines for violating environmental laws with the costs of responsibly processing an industrial by-product so it is harmless; resulting in frequent illegal and dangerous disposal of toxic waste.
	* A world where corporations spend millions of dollars in profits on undermining democracies across the Earth.
	* A world where corporations don’t fact check before broadcasting news reports.
	* A world where cheap labor is seen as expendable – resulting in lack of safety measures in factories across the Earth.
	* A world where corporations replace parts of our food with untested industrial byproducts.
	* A world where corporations won’t tell us if the food they are selling us has been genetically modified.
	* A world where corporations take millions of dollars in profits away from their shareholders and give it to their board of directors.
	* A world where corporations don’t invest in the future if it reduces profits in the present, a world where everything and everyone is merely a means to an end, and the end only profit. 
This is the world we live in now, and the world we are preparing to give to our children. But, this future DOES NOT HAVE TO HAPPEN! And we can stop it swiftly, without needing rely on the actions of politicians!

What a future with universal Shareholder Empowerment looks like:
Imagine for a moment, a world where shareholders could go online, and pull up their stock portfolio on a website, then select from a menu of preferences for each of their stocks what they most want the corporations they own to do. Then fill out a form to transfer their voting rights to an organization that will cast their votes on their behalf, as part of a block of hundreds of thousands of other shareholders voicing the same preferences. The list of possible preferences could be endless, though there are likely to be some preferences that would be more prevalent than others, for example: 
	* If they own media stock, they could select that they want all news broadcasts to be fact checked before airing. 
	* If they own food industry stock, they could select that they want all genetically modified ingredients in their products to be labeled. 
	* If they own financial industry stock, they could select that no employee or director of the company make more than 500x the lowest paid full-time employee. 
	* If they own energy company stock, they could select that they want 20% of the company’s expenses be dedicated to developing and implementing sustainable energy sources. 
	* If they own manufacturing stock, they could select that the factory safety standards will be globally uniform, conforming to the highest standard. 
	* If they own retail stock, they could select that they want the company to end all resistance to unionization of the employees. 
	* If they own chemical company stock, they could select that company policy will be to obey environmental protection laws without cost-benefit analysis beforehand. 
And possibly the most significant preference any sharehold could take if they own stock in ANY corporation: they could select that they do not want the corporation to spend a dime on influencing government policy beyond mere reporting of the business’ opinions on bills and laws.

With their preferences known, these coordinated votes of the shareholders would be used to nominate an alternative candidate for the board of directors. Ultimately, these votes would be used to elect a board of directors that can serve the interests of the shareholders most completely, and in so doing leave the shareholders fulfilled as owners, for they are now responsible for the actions corporations take in their name. In a world of universal shareholder empowerment, anything the shareholders want for the world becomes possible. A world of conscientious capitalist cooperation & competition is now merely a matter of the shareholders choosing it to be so.
©2012 Andrew M. Crockett
andrewmcrockett at gmail.com 
From: Brian Good <snug.bug at hotmail.com>
To: sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org 
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2012 10:02 AM
Subject: [GPSCC-chat] FW: [Occupy PA] PALO ALTO: Move to Amend California Barnstorming Tour Sunday 11:00 am

PALO ALTO: Move to Amend California Barnstorming Tour | Move to Amend
movetoamend.org
David Cobb, a fiery speaker, and former Green Party presidential candidate, is touring California giving his talk "Creating Democracy & Challenging Corporate Rule."  This presentation is part history lesson and part heart-felt call-to-action!

PALO ALTO: Move to Amend California Barnstorming Tour
Date: 
February 12, 2012 - 11:00am - 12:00pm
Location:
Student Center at Palo Alto High School (corner of El Camino Real and Embarcadero)
50 Embarcadero Rd
Palo Alto, CA 94301
See map: Google Maps

David Cobb, a fiery speaker, and former Green Party presidential candidate, is touring California giving his talk "Creating Democracy & Challenging Corporate Rule."  This presentation is part history lesson and part heart-felt call-to-action!
Cobb is an organizer and national spokesman for MoveToAmend.org, a coalition of over 160,000 people and organizations whose goal is to amend the United States Constitution to end corporate rule and legalize democracy.
This event is free and open to the general public, donations requested, no one turned away for lack of funds.

Event Contact: Brian Davis
Email:  bjdpc at yahoo.com
Phone:  650-856-2253

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