What We Need - reforming the business world

"When things get too big, I don't trust them at all
You want some control, you got to keep it small"
- Peter Gabiel, "DIY"


Oppose corporatism. Mergers are not growth. Mergers are merely consolidation of power.
A corpotation is not a person, whatever the laws say. A corporation has no soul, no conscience.
The idea that corporations make decisions is a bad metaphor stretched to the point of being a lie. It's people that make decisions. Hold people responsible.

Support small business. It's small businesses that innovate. Big businesses can't. (Read Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemna.) It's small businesses that create jobs that won't go overseas. It's small local businesses that are responsive to customers. And it's small businesses that possess an entrepeneurial spirit. Big businesses don't. They chase fads, but that's not at all the same thing.

Competition is accountability. Those that seek to eliminate the competition seek to eliminate accountability.

Ask yourself: is there any good thing an LLC can accomplish that can't be done
with a joint venture?

There's a right size for everything. There will always be a place for big business. At a minimum, we will always need big defense contractors, as a necessary evil. But right now we need more smaller businesses.

Antitrust. Oppose collusion and monopolies wherever possible. Example: don't run Microsoft software, or give Microsoft any money, unless you're absolutely forced to.

Intellectual property. Defend fair use. Demand that copyright laws be rolled back to sanity. Support artists that try (legally) to circumvent the corporate establishment.

Bogus accounting. You know what I'm talking about. These people have to go to jail. This shouldn't even be debatable.

Too much advertising. Junk mail. Spam. Telemarketers. They treat us with absolute contempt. Let's return the favor. (That said, the fact remains that Adbusters is kinda lame.)

Corporate news (mainsteam media) is crap. (Actually, so are "alternative" newspapers, they're just crap from a different animal.) The solution is to get your information from multiple sources. Enter the Web!

There's nothing wrong with building something yourself, if you know how, or are willing to learn how. Self sufficiency was an American virtue once.

Outsourcing of anything nontrivial is dangerously stupid. If it's important enough to be worth doing, it's worth maintaining control over. Do it inhouse, and you're less likely to get screwed.

The global economy is here, and there's nothing to do about it. But there should be a limit to offshore outsourcing, if only because of national security considerations. It's a bad policy to become dependent on foreigners for anything we need.

Enlightened self interest is one thing. Mindless greed is another.

Adam Smith wrote more than one book. Become acquainted with the Theory of Moral Sentiments.

No more corporate welfare. Make business earn its keep.

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