Ok, Big Mick. I don't have any argument with your criticism/analysis. Your solutions sound good to me. The problem I see is this... we're operating within a capitalist system. As you've said yourself, big business has most of the capital. And with this capital, big business can, and has undermined any attempts to make things more economically equitable.

It's their football and they've made it clear that they are perfectly willing to take their football and go elsewhere. Passing laws to make big business to play fair hasn't worked. Big business will always find a way to get around the laws. Or prevent them from being made in the first place.

Bartholomew backs up what I'm saying with the following paragraph...

We as individuals and citizens have two possible means to influence corporate decision making - market forces and government intervention. But when businesses reach a certain size market forces are marginalized; multi-national corporations can control the markets. And as for government, they have played along, Republicans more and Democrats slightly less, since FDR was forced to clean up the last great corporate meltdown. Can you see where NAFTA and the FTAA fit into this picture?

So it seems to me that, if we are going to continue to operate within a capitalist system and at the same time create the equitable scenario that you have described, it will be necessary for big business to come to the conclusion that it is in their self interest to cooperate. Maybe there is a way for us to help them come to this conclusion. How might we do that?

Carol