Disabling the exercise of for-profit-corporate control over society

Here's an excellent resource, with graphs, tables and sources for understanding how power is wielded and how wealth and income is distributed in the US, both now and historically:

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

I encourage everyone to study the above page and it's relevant links. On the historical information, note the similarity of income/wealth distribution between pre-Great Depression and pre-Great Recession. Tax rate follow similarly. For those dark periods of our country's finances, they're skewed in favor of the plutocracy.

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Here is one quote from that site that is worth copying here:

"First, wealth can be seen as a "resource" that is very useful in exercising power. That's obvious when we think of donations to political parties, payments to lobbyists, and grants to experts who are employed to think up new policies beneficial to the wealthy. Wealth also can be useful in shaping the general social environment to the benefit of the wealthy, whether through hiring public relations firms or donating money for universities, museums, music halls, and art galleries.

Second, certain kinds of wealth, such as stock ownership, can be used to control corporations, which of course have a major impact on how the society functions. Tables 5a and 5b show what the distribution of stock ownership looks like. Note how the top one percent's share of stock equity increased (and the bottom 80 percent's share decreased) between 2001 and 2007.

Third, just as wealth can lead to power, so too can power lead to wealth. Those who control a government can use their position to feather their own nests, whether that means a favorable land deal for relatives at the local level or a huge federal government contract for a new corporation run by friends who will hire you when you leave government. If we take a larger historical sweep and look cross-nationally, we are well aware that the leaders of conquering armies often grab enormous wealth, and that some religious leaders use their positions to acquire wealth."

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The basic function of for-profit corporations is to enrich the plutocracy, thereby perpetuating itself and its power over the politicians and country. Non-profit models are just as capable as for-profit models of creating jobs and investing. For-profit = greed/plutocrat perpetuation. Not-for-profit = operation for the good of the PEOPLE.

Why do corporations operate only for greed? Because their corporate charters (granted by their home state) allow it. The states could easily require that with every corporate charter comes the responsibility to act in the best interest of the PEOPLE and/or that they be non-profit structures.

Why do corporations act recklessly, willfully exploiting natural and human resources? Their leaders and owners suffer no personal consequences as a result of such harmful activities. If Average Bad Joe knew he'd suffer no personal consequences for treating society badly, what's his incentive for being good? States could easily reinstate personal liability for corporate management and controllling shareholders. Personal liability would breed more civically responsible decisions.

Don't mistake these goals as anti-business, ESPECIALLY not as anti-small-business. They're simply anti-plutocrat and pro-PEOPLE. If you search for quotes in relation to corporations by our founding and subsequent leaders, you'll find that MANY were not at all enamored with corporations.

Here's another great website for inequality stats and info:

http://inequality.org/