The Corporate Contract

Like the old Social Contract, in which concept mankind allegedly surrendered some of his individual rights to a local sovereign in return for social order and collective protection, there has existed for the last one hundred years or so in this country a Corporate Contract. This Corporate Contract began with people offering to become company workers who surrender a number of their individual rights to a specific corporation and in return receive prizes of great value. The rights they surrender include the right to work elsewhere or at times they would prefer to work, or to receive a higher rate of pay than the corporation was willing to pay, or agree to be transferred to another part of the country. In return the workers would receive from the corporation a regular paycheck both in regard to amount and regularity of payment, medical care, vacation or time off from work with pay, even sick leave with pay, and ability to negotiate with the company in union with other workers. Most corporations had a provision called "seniority" under which a worker, after working a specified number of years with the corporation, could receive protection against layoffs and transfers, and then after thirty or so years of constant work, they would receive "retirement", a regular paycheck for the rest of their life without ever having to work again.  In truth, this "retirement" was supposedly a portion of that worker's weekly paycheck that was withheld and invested in a retirement fund by the corporation, so that the "retirement" pay was actually a portion of the wages already earned buy not yet paid.

And there was more. The workers remained in the country and so did the corporation, and so did the jobs. A great benefit that many workers realized was the thrill of finding employment for their own children at the same company they had worked at for the greater part of their lives. Large numbers of corporations prospered in this environment, and together they, and their workers made the nation stronger. And the nation became a more powerful, capable and respected member of the international community. Also, if war came to the nation, there was ready workforce able to quickly retool into the defense industry.

Now this contract has changed dramatically. It began to change as the civil rights protests and the war against Vietnam also pitted ordinary citizens against their governments. There was a subtle shift that also began to take place in the Corporate Contract fundamentals. The Carter administration was unaware of this shift and the Reagan administration began inserting new provisions into the old Corporate Contract - provisions that began shifting the cost/benefit relationship between corporations and their workers to "agreements" between the corporations and the US government. Today, most new corporate workers receive a temporary job at reduced pay. The health care they receive is whatever they purchse with their own money, so are their retirement provisions and most workers are less concerned they might be transferred to another state than that their company might transfer itself to another country.

Corporations have long enjoyed a special place in America. They have been defined by the US Supreme Court as a "person", with all rights and privileges pertaining to all other people. The only rights denied to them are the rights to marry and vote. They have protection provided by the government, tax relief denied to their own workers, and bankruptcy procedures that allow them to sluff off many of their obligations when they need to, and continue to operate. They still can't vote, but they can "hire" their own representatives, senators and even presidents by providing enormous "contributions" to the candidates of their choice. A corporation can feed money to someone running for representative in another state helping that candidate to win and then provide supporting legislation friendly to that corporation which is in another state. Many corporations use their state charter as a den from which they can roam the United States and the rest of the world as they are able to penetrate -truly citizens of the world, yet beholden only to regulations of the state in which they are chartered, and they compete with each other in a cannibalistic market, cutting expenses as well as services and product. Their workers are used as necessary and older workers and retired workers are shaken off when they become too expensive to the corporation.

Now governmental officials need the money of the corporations more than it needs the votes of the citizens (workers) so the "Corporate Contract" lives on - but as an agreement between the American president, senators and representates, and the corporate world. It reads something like this - "You pass the laws we need, and enforce the ones we want and we will give you the money you need to run for office - if not, we will withdraw our monetary support from you and provide it to someone else who will represent us."