wearechange.org becomes yet another reporter of the corporate wish to make people pay for something they did not make or own. “Irish Water’ placed a clause in their contract to supply water to home owners that was undoubtedly copied and pasted from an American corporate model.
It goes something like this:-
If rain falls out of the sky and into the drains, the water is accepted as the natural cycle of water returning to the water tables to be treated and used again.
If that same rain water falls out of the sky and a person collects the water for personal use before discarding the used water into the drains, there is a charge levied on the use of the drains for discarding the water that was not the property of the company.
So let me get this straight. If we let all the rainwater wash down the drains there is no charge but if we use some of it first, then let it go down the drain, there will be a charge for the use, wear and tear of the drains.
Technically the water company is trying to attach an additional charge for the personal use of rainwater that they did not supply. Yet no matter how you look at it, those who want to conserve water are being punished by the water company because the water company makes no profit out of water not going through their water meter.
The reason for doing this is a simple one; corporations exist solely to make a profit. Since the moment of their creation they had this one pursuit in mind (as it is with virtually all businesses but the heart and soul of local business works in harmony with local people to build a prosperous community whereas corporations don’t care about communities). In the beginning, however, corporations existed for the purpose of building a bridge or creating something that would make more productivity and then disbanded once the project had been fulfilled.
A film documentary entitled THE CORPORATION shows a documentary that can illustrate far better than I how the US 14th amendment was used to turn a corporation into a ‘person’ and thus allow the said corporations to continue as an entity beyond the purpose of one project or event; See film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pin8fbdGV9Y&list=PLCDF6B02DFD948794
Corporate lawyers achieved the birth of monsters without conscience. The sole purpose of corporations is to make money and that does not have to take into consideration the people, animals, plant life or finite resources of this planet. I personally fail to understand how a ‘person’ identified as an entity with rights is not then equally subject to the same criminal punishments including having their assets stripped and imprisoned for theft, murder and criminal damage.
Of course, if a corporation cannot be imprisoned it is clearly not a person. The legal ruling that said otherwise is therefor an Act of legal stupidity that should be revoked immediately and all corporations disbanded forthwith.
But the governments and tax collectors of this world are hardly going to bite the hand that it believes is feeding it. Sadly the people are feeding the same institutions either because there is a monopoly, like Irish Water, or the said corporations hide behind other names and brands to the point that we have no idea who owns what.
So what next? Already the CEO of Nestle is reported to have said that water should not be a right but a sale-able commodity; and readily steals water from villages in Pakistan, forcing them away from their homes. In the UK, Nestle produce ‘Buxton Spring’ and ‘Pure Life’. But they are not alone in what might be called euphemistically unethical practices. http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/sep/01/ethical-bottled-water-companies-nestle-coke
Charging for air is not a new concept. Oxygen machines in Tokyo have been used for years because of the smog. Now a Venezuelan (Caracas) airport is trying it http://www.bustle.com/articles/31426-caracas-airport-charges-flyers-for-clean-air-ominously-calls-it-breathing-tax
I find it difficult to understand how this is in any way right. If I, as a person, were to dump a whole heap of smelly domestic rubbish onto a public road and then charge people who want to use the road by making a clear pathway, could I then stand up in a court, deny culpability, claim profit as a justifiable excuse and then carry on polluting roads?
If a corporation is a ‘person’ then it follows that a person is equal in the eyes of the law. The only difference that I can see between myself and the legal status of a corporation - if it is also a person - is that I can in no way afford billions of any currency and years of my short life arguing tiny points of law through court after court, as surely any challenge to a mega rich monster is able to do. This is the only reason that I can see that governments, who are now wallowing in debt, often to the very same corporations who have no interest in the well being of the people or the world we live in, would shudder at the notion of trying to prosecute a ‘person’ of any crime if the punishment to the person caused sudden and terminal loss of tax revenue.
So if I had that sort of power an influence over entire governments then yes, I could carry on polluting roads and do what the hell I liked.
If there was ever a need for reform it would be to revise the status of corporations. In the meantime, the last thing we should do is allow a further entrenchment of rights for profit to visit our shores.
What we see in the charging for the air we breathe and the rainwater falling freely from the sky are examples of the kind of profit grabbing that will come from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/what-is-ttip-and-six-reasons-why-the-answer-should-scare-you-9779688.html
The crazy thing is that the people don’t get to vote on this deal that will allow corporations to charge governments for loss of profit if they don’t accept the pollution, the genetic modifications and the damage that will inevitably be caused by their products. It is an insanity but all governments are being arm twisted into accepting it because corporations generate tax revenue. The only thing you can do is make sure you let your MP know, especially at election time, that you will vote for those whose party are opposed to TTIP, which in the UK pretty much rules out Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats; all the major political parties. In fact the only party credible enough who will protect you from all of the above is most likely to be the Green Party.
I believe it is important that we do not squander what little influence we have as individuals. We are living in a time where personal responsibility extends to beyond the normal focus of family and loved ones. It is our responsibility to become more aware of what we are not being told openly. Otherwise we will suddenly find ourselves being fitted with personalised chips and charged for air by the breath, taxed on the level of liquid consumed, charged on the balance of overweight to our body mass index (BMI) and penalised for any periods of ‘non productivity’.
You think it can’t happen? Is it any less crazy than being charged to use rain water?
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