We Need a New App…

We Need a New App…

“Information is the most valuable commodity I know.”

- Gordon Gekko

By J.M. Hamilton (3-19-2016)

If the 2016 presidential race has revealed nothing else, it is this: the amount of money flowing into congressional and presidential races is obscene, and severely compromises even the best politicians.  Both Sanders and Trump have come out strongly against their respective opposition for being beholden to billionaires, Super PACs, multinationals, Big Biz, and 501Cs.   In essence, their anti-establishment campaigns are against a government and campaign finance system dominated by Oligarchy.

Despite all the fighting on social issues, when it comes to economic and foreign policy issues, the two political parties are very much in lock step, and one can barely see daylight between them and the establishment. 

By way of example consider both political parties’ decades long support (tacit or express) for: ruinous and job killing free trade; a regressive tax structure; mass incarceration; Wall St. and the economy's heavy dependence upon finance; the lack of social spending and infrastructure investment; a tax code riddled with loopholes, largely favoring major corporations and billionaires; disastrous M&A and combinations, leading to job killing monopolies and cartels; the offshoring of labor and the export of manufacturing jobs, as a fait accompli; and very few serious politicians question the DOD (MIC and Surveillance State), and America’s wars and military bases across the globe.  

Doubt me still, notice many conservative neocons are pledging to vote for Madame Hillary Clinton, should Mr. Trump become the GOP nominee.

This is by no accident.  Very powerful and moneyed interests afford campaign contributions, and lobby both political parties for support.  Many of my friends, and especially the national news organizations, love to discuss the differences between the Dems and the GOP; but I often redirect my friends, particularly on economic and foreign policy issues, to consider that the U.S. is really under one party rule, the Oligarchy.   That is to say, the American publics’ quarrel really isn’t with the Democratic or Republican politicians, per se; but rather, the public’s beef is with the billionaire class and multinationals that own the political class.   Hence, the massive rebellion currently underway against the Establishment of both political parties, made manifest by the two outsider candidates, Sanders and Trump.

To that end, how do Americans get a handle on the billionaires and multinationals, which truly pull Washington’s strings?  This is a massive problem, calling for a technical solution, a new downloadable app.  My proposed app maybe already out on the market in varying degrees, but what I’m proposing is far more comprehensive and universal in its approach.  For starters, each place of business, product, or service would have an informational bar code, which would allow consumers and the public to understand where a business rests on a whole range of issues impacting American consumers, voters, and workers.   It would allow American consumers to make informed decisions about the products and services they purchase. 

Why is such an app so important?  JMH made the case late last year in our editorial, With friends like these…  To wit, every time Americans purchased a barrel of Saudi or Middle East oil, some percentage of their dollar was going to support highly oppressive Middle East monarchies with abysmal human rights records.  Worse still, Americans buying Middle East oil are paying for and subsidizing the spread of fundamentalist Islamic religion and terrorism.  Ipso facto, when a Republican, Democrat, Independent, Conservative or Liberal purchases a product or service from Koch Industries, they are supporting plutocrats, who have pledged nearly a billion dollars to purchase the White House.  The Kochs, of course, are known for far-right politics, and pro-plutocracy views that are often inimical to the interests of American society as whole. 

Now, how the proposed app would work (let’s call ‘er the Polipro 1.0) is said consumers, say Mrs. & Mrs. Sally Q. Public, would scan a bar code with their mobile phone, which could provide a flood of information about the product or service, and the manufacturer(s) of same.   Say Mrs. & Mrs. Public are buying a Georgia Pacific product for their new home… Georgia Pacific is owned and operated by Koch Industries.  The Publics can scan the informational bar code, and thanks to the Polipro 1.0, out comes a wealth of information about the manufacturer and their product, so that the Publics may make an informed decision to buy that product or look for alternatives.

Mrs. & Mrs. Sally Q. Public may swing hard right, or have libertarian tendencies, and love what the Polipro 1.0 is telling them about Koch Industries and Georgia Pacific.  Conversely, the Publics may be earthy-crunchy, Social-Democrats, living in Vermont, and the Polipro 1.0 causes them to run away from the Georgia Pacific product in abject horror.  But either way, the proposed app allows consumers, and labor, to make informed decisions about the products and services they buy (or perhaps the companies they are considering working for), and whether or not they – in turn – want their money, or labor, to contribute to purchasing the White House for right-wing causes.

What might the Polipro1.0 show us, after scanning a product’s informational bar code?

1)  The name of the manufacturer, of course.

2)  How much money was contributed to the respective political parties, over the last five years.

3)  Does said manufacturer contribute to Super PACs or 501Cs?   The answer is either “yes” or “no.” Consumers might immediately question any response that remains unanswered.

4)  What percentage of the product and its components were manufactured within the United States.

5)  What percentage of said manufacturer’s income was paid in taxes for three years running, as a percentage of EBITDA.

6)  How much money did said manufacturer spend on lobbying in the last five years?

7)  What causes were lobbied for?

8)  What percentage of the manufactures global labor force is American?

9)  What is the lowest wage, per hour, paid to their employees, globally?  Does the manufacturer promote equal pay for equal work?

10)  What is the manufacturer's position on free trade?

11)   How many jobs have been offshored w/in the last five years?  What percentage of said company’s labor force offshored?

12)   Is the industry dominated by a cartel or monopoly and what is the manufacturer’s market share?

13)  Has the manufacturer been sighted for any EPA or OSHA violations within the last five years, if so – respectively – how many violations?

14)   Is said manufacturer owned by a private equity firm?

15)   Has the company participated in any financial engineering over the last five years?  Stock buyback?   Labor force reductions on the heals of said financial engineering or LBO?

16)   What is the company’s profit margin, before EBITDA?

17)   Etc., etc., etc.  Note, the Polipro 1.0 might even create a composite score for a company, based upon the aforementioned, as to how consumer, labor, and/or environmentally friendly they are.

Now, I know what my readers are thinking?  Why would companies surrender such information, as it may lead to deleterious sales figures and impact profit margins.  Some information, on a specific product, may thrill a GOP or Dem shopper, but turn off an independent or liberal or v.v. 

The answer is, especially for publicly traded companies, a great deal of information may already be in the public domain; and thanks to Google, a great deal of information may also be available on privately held companies as well.  If a company wasn’t forthcoming with a product’s informational bar code, the consumer might immediately assume the manufacturer or service provider has something to hide, and look for product or service alternatives.  Companies doing business with other companies may choose not to do business with Company X because of the amount of money Company X contributed to perceived conservative and/or liberal cause(s)?  

Up until now, the Oligarchy – that owns and operates this country - has remained in the shadows.  American consumers have made the Oligarchy very powerful through its labor, purchasing power, and nescience.  A very real app like the proposed Polipro 1.0 would remove the Oligarchy from the shadows; and the app would likely, in the long run, make billionaire business owners, conglomerates, and multinationals think twice before contributing to their pet right-wing or left-wing causes.  The Oligarchy might also think twice before buying off the Congress, to the detriment of the American people.

Our friends in Silicon Valley need to get on it.  The spin off benefits, and revenue generating capacity, from such an app are enormous.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2016