One course of action that might make a difference might be a uniform flat-tax of twenty per cent on corporate profits, backed by very rigid definitions of what constitutes profit.

ANother might be the imposition of legal, public justification for any compensation that is more than 100 times the minimum wage -- requiring complete transparency.

IT seems clear that the age in which one should be allowed to do anything at all in the market place in order to make gain -- misrepresent, manipulate, conspire, make hidden controls on the price structures, buy influence, etc. -- has to come to an end.

The great risk of this is that too heavy a burden on those who produce products and exchange them for profit will dampen the dynamic drive of the market. Thus the abhorred risks of too much socialism.

But the risks at the other extreme -- too little social consciousness -- have also been plainly demonstrated as people involved int he market grow more and kore short sighted. The cost gets paid in bad politicsm, rotting infrastructure, the erosion of the arts, the failure of education, and the loss of spiritual insight, a kind of coarse materialism that breeds irresponsibility and makes heroes out of Alice Coopers, rap hatred, and Grand THeft Auto players.

If a revolution is to be of worth and merit,and not just be another interesting flap, it needs to look plainly at these conflated and collapsed confusions and find ways to balance them.


A