Wealth and Want
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Peter Barnes: Capitalism 3.0 — Chapter 6: Trusteeship of Creation (pages 79-100)

The question of who gets the top right in any society is always an interesting one. Invariably, the top dogs in any era assert that there’s no alternative. Kings said it three hundred years ago; capital owners say it today. They hire priests and economists to add moral or pseudoscientific credence to their claims. The truth, though, is that societies choose their top right holders, and we can change our minds if we wish.

Kelly locates many places where capital’s supremacy is written into our codes. Corporate directors, for example, are bound by law to put shareholders’ financial gain first. If a raider offers a higher price for a publicly traded company than its current market value, directors have little choice but to sell, regardless of the consequences for workers, communities, or nature. Similarly, it’s the fiduciary duty of mutual funds, pension funds, and other institutional investors to seek the highest returns for their shareholders or beneficiaries. This duty is embodied, among other places, in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. Although the language of the act sounds innocent enough — a pension fund manager, like any trustee, “shall discharge his duties . . . solely in the interest of the participants and beneficiaries” — it results, ironically, in the financing of many workers’ retirements by investing in companies that shift other workers’ jobs overseas. Throw in the WTO and NAFTA, and the rights of capital stand comfortably astride everyone else’s. ... read the whole chapter

 

 

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... because democracy alone hasn't yet led to a society in which all can prosper