Tag: technology

The Public Needs to be Protected

by Greg Snyder

The Fairness Doctrine was defective because it did not protect the public from the propaganda, lies, non-verified/non-fact checked, speculation, opinions, and distortions of truth, smears campaigns, fear-mongering, xenophobia and racism, that is being produced every day by mainstream news media and cable channel “news” shows like Fox News.

The defect of the Fairness Doctrine that was exploited was that its guidelines did not protect the public, but rather mandated that “both sides” of an issue be covered in the news and given equal time before the public. This was abused to create reasonable doubt in the public mind and then used to advance a deleterious libertarian free market ideology and policy agenda by a small group of scientists working for the administrations of republican presidents to obscure the truth of settled science on a number of consequential issues.

“The Merchants of Doubt”, a book by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway provides a detailed exposé of how these scientists working for republican administrations attacked settled scientific truths that were not even in question as there was general consensus in the scientific community based on the scientific method, peer reviewed validation, that had already definitively scientifically settled these matters. We are still very much living with this type of media manipulation of facts and reality by a mass corporate media and cable news outlets that today continue to spread propaganda, lies, conspiracy theories, delusional speculations, radically extreme conservative and opinions, hate-mongering and race-baiting xenophobia even though the Fairness Doctrine was stopped by Ronald Reagan’s FCC in 1987.

The United States needs a law that protects the public from mass manipulation by the unscrupulous, self-serving corporate and cable media empires that control the airwaves and much of the press. We need a law that requires fact-checking and proscribes the dissemination of non-factual, non-verified, non-vetted information that is speculative or deceptive or manipulative and ideologically or politically based. This new law would require that it is the news source’s responsibility to prove the veracity of the content it disseminates. Speculative and opinion editorial content should all be required to provide disclaimers to alert the public that that is what is being reported, speculations or opinions that are not necessarily factual in nature. So, viewer be warned.

The law that is needed is not the Fairness Doctrine. But rather it would have to be a law to protect the public, not demand equal time on settled matters which, as we now know, can be used to muddy the waters, confuse or scare the public, and create reasonable doubt when there really is no actual reasonable doubt.

Is it Time to Rethink Work?

by Greg Snyder

Working is a difficult concept. Individuals have to figure out what they want to do for work. Ideally, it is something they enjoy doing. But, just that first step, figuring out what kind of work to do is a difficult process for most people.

For most people, work is a reality in which they have no say or power. It doesn’t have to be that way. But finding an alternative to it requires creative thinking and problem-solving and/or a commitment to more active participation, communication and team playing. It also requires a desire to be more empowered and autonomous. For many people these requirements are too much to accept so they are at the mercy of seeking private sector employment in already established businesses.

Employee-owned companies and collectives, stores, and businesses that produce goods and services are a way out of the slavery that working for a hierarchical, management-heavy, for-profit business can be and often is.

Even when people who work in such companies enjoy the work that they do, it can often be in a hostile environment that is degrading, demeaning, and that does not value the contribution of the worker, especially in terms of compensation, labor rights, and benefits.

Employee-owned businesses can be the solution and a way out of the slavery and drudgery of working for a company that does not value the work and contribution of its workers and whose sole interest is the profit margin of the owners, shareholders, executives, and corporate boards. The sad fact of capitalism is that the working side of business, the workers who actually do the work and are the productive members within the business itself, usually have no say or power in this type of business model and do not share equally in the profit generated by the goods and services they produce. It’s the owners and shareholders who most benefit from this type of business model. And they don’t do any of the work. The workers do the work.  

Employee-owned businesses can develop and adopt any form of business model that they want to follow and structure themselves any way they want. They can be egalitarian and equitable. That is the beauty of employee-based business: it can provide a good living for workers, create a good work environment that allows for the workers to enjoy doing what they like to do while providing them with better compensation and benefits without having to struggle and fight for them and face opposition (owners and CEOs) that has deeper pockets for ligation and lobbying and which will do anything it can to protect and maintain its bottom line which usually means keeping costs and overhead as low as possible which translates to paying low wages and strictly limiting or eliminating paying benefits or giving cost of living increases.

The establishment of employee-owned or collective businesses is a process that relies almost entirely on the expertise and experience of core people who know how to start a business from scrap with very little or no outside financial assistance which is a formidable task. Depending on outside financial assistance can be a minefield and expose the new business to predatory, indebted servitude to banks or private equity that most often take a company that often starts with the goal of being a self-sustaining company and breaking it. A lot of thought, planning, and a solid business plan are required to avoid that pitfall and demise. It requires enough people coming together to bring it to fruition who are willing to be part of it and commit to making it work so that being dependent on outside financial assistance is not and does not become necessary.  

So, if it is time to rethink work, there are alternatives to the traditional business model that are egalitarian and give the workers their fair due. It’s not the easy way to go and there are costs and risks. But, in the end, if workers are treated fairly and everyone is compensated well and is able to thrive in a work environment, wouldn’t it be worth it? Americans have always been entrepreneurs. But they haven’t scaled it up to the point where small businesses and employee-owned and collective businesses are the dominant business model. That may never happen. But it doesn’t mean that the potential for that happening does not exist.

Regulations are Protections

by Greg Snyder

A top priority of republicans is to slash federal spending on all kinds of regulations, policies, and laws that protect the American people.

Regulations keep our air and water clean, make polluters responsible for reducing emissions and cleaning up toxic messes made by them. Regulations protect consumers by preventing usurious fees by unscrupulous banks and thereby help keep more money in consumers pockets. Anti trust regulations keep corporations from becoming monopolies and injuring a truly free market. If you have some security in retirement because you have Social Security and Medicare, regulations make it so.

These are just three kinds of regulations, environmental, consumer/banking, and retirement/social safety net, that republican working not on behalf of their constituents but on behalf of their billionaire political patrons, want to gut.

There are many other kinds of regulations that support and protect the the American people. So, when republicans talk about how terrible and wasteful government spending is ask yourself, “Who would benefit from such cuts?” Is it the billionaire donors who want to completely escape and disassociate themselves from the social contract that when they participate in it asks them to pay their fair share of taxes and live in society as socially responsible citizens, not as an elite, entitled, ultra rich sliver of the population that desires freedom from any civic responsibility?

Ask yourself, “Would getting rid of the regulations that these republicans are working to eliminate, help or hurt you and your family? Those are two very important and very easy questions that you can and should always should ask yourself when you see or hear republicans talking about slashing spending and ending regulations. Think about those regulations and about how they affect your life personally. Most often you will find that the regulations that republicans want to slash positively affect your life and improve your standard of living. Is that what you want?