Reading the recent diary People against Corporate America PACA by stiffneck has inspired me to write on this issue. I hope I am not violating etiquette with my take on the issue.
As has been discussed the corporate interests that spend their efforts directly opposed to the public interest derive their power from this same public. We empower them with our dollars via our purchases and investments, and they then use them against our interests. Kind of like giving arms to the enemy.
We need to take our power back and to me that means using those dollars like they are votes. In our daily life when we spend our money, we need to have some relative idea of whether the entities we are dealing with are good or bad.
We need to create some sort of a rating system and infrastructure so that we can be informed citizens when we vote with our dollars. Maybe something based on a crowd sourcing methodology so we develop ratings that are not easily manipulated by those we seek to rate.
Facets of what I believe makes a business good for society.
- They fairly compensate their employees.
- They do not have a politically voice.
- They are environmentally conscious.
- They expect these same traits from their suppliers and subcontractors.
- They do not unfairly and overly compensate their top management.
- The business size is not extreme.
Issues such a quality and cost I believe are rated by the customer actively while weighting who to do business with and therefore do not need to be considered in a rating.
My reasoning for putting forth this rather unformed idea is to generate a discussion with those that see it as a doable idea worth pursuing, and to evolve it into a workable methodology and plan of action.