Corporate Ethics vs Congressional Ethics, There Is a Difference
There is a sense of absolute wrong about various corporate misdoings and yet, somehow a kind of natural entitlement to money-contributions in the Congress. That’s always seemed strange to me because I would think it would be the other way ‘round.
If the major oil companies collude to set gasoline and heating-oil prices (and heaven knows, I would never claim that), then the result is a spike in their profitability and a slight dent in my pocketbook. But if these same companies go around a law here and a regulation there by (essentially) paying-off my Senator or Representative, then I have lost a very basic freedom to be fairly represented.
Slicing the tops off West Virginia’s most scenic mountain ranges to get cheap coal is an example. No one would approve of that disgrace but the coal companies. It doesn’t even provide jobs comparable to the lost income from a damaged tourist industry, the pollution of streams and rivers and the loss to all future generations for a trade-off to momentar…