Capitalism and Democracy require an informed citizenry
Responsible capitalism and democracy require that the individual be able to inform him or herself about what he or she is choosing. Without the ability to be informed, every person in the system will suffer, and society will fall into chaos and destruction. Without correct information, no one can make good decisions.
GMOs
When companies withhold information or attempt to keep consumers in the dark about the products that the company sells, consumers cannot make decisions about the quality of life that they want to have. Even through the 1980s when reporters were breaking the news about cigarettes and the way that companies manipulate consumers including covering up the negative health consequences of smoking, tobacco companies were using their political and economic clout to throw up a smoke screen. They even went so far as to threaten to sue ABC when Day One broke the story about the consequences of smoking; their actions resulted in ABC apologizing because Disney would not have purchased them if they were under a law suit. It also had a cooling effect on other news sources at other channels. Six months later, the story broke again, and the facts were and are irrefutable.
This type of cover up is currently going on with companies that profit from the creation and maintenance of genetically modified organisms. These companies claim that the only difference between a naturally grown fruit or vegetable and one that has been modified with genes from fish, other animals and/or plants is that the company owns the gene and thus anyone growing a GMO whether intended or not must pay them for the product. However, rather than giving the consumer a choice about what to eat, they continue to fight legislation that would require GMO labelling. Consumers cannot effectively choose between products that have been genetically modified and those that haven’t.
Misinformation
There are good economic reasons why a company would want to mislead the public about what it product does or does not do. Years spent developing Vioxx means that a company needs to recover those costs and earn a profit. Covering up the fact that Vioxx is linked to heart disease and only talking about its therapeutic effects is a kind of misinformation. While there are laws against misleading advertising, it is often hard to prove, and even harder to sue a company for those types of crimes.
When BP states in a commercial that it set aside billions for the gulf recovery effort, it isn’t really lying; it is just omitting the fact that the money set aside was negotiated with the American government to pay for the damages done to the Gulf Coats economy, and BP is now fighting the settlement. Their commercials are all about how they are working to make the environment better, but the actuality is they are balking at cleaning up the mess that they made.
Those who control the information
John Mayer sang it best: Those that control the information can bend it all they want. When pharmaceutical companies target commercials at the consumer and products at the doctor, it is hard to tell who to trust. If the doctor receives financial compensation for prescribing a certain medication over any other, it is, at a minimum, a violation of the doctor-patient relationship. Big pharma is only secondarily interested in a cure. Its first priority is that of profit, especially any publicly traded pharmaceutical company. If you can’t trust your doctor to give you unbiased information, who can you trust? It certainly isn’t the news media who panders to companies that may sue.
We live in an age of unprecedented information. We know more about most celebrity lives than what we actually put in our mouths. We know more about most sports stars than what we are doing to the environment and to each other. We know more about what is going on in foreign countries, as spun by our favorite news channels, than we know about what is going on with our neighbors.
Unfortunately, all of this mis-, dis- and unimportant information has eroded our abilities to be the informed citizenry required for a well-functioning capitalist and democratic society. Until we can get a handle on what the truth is, people will ignore facts and trust that voting on them or taking them to a court of law will change the facts. However, if facts could be changed by popular vote, the world would be flat, and if they could be changed by a court of law, corporations would become actual people and money would become actual speech. Imagine being able to shake a conglomeration’s hand or listening to George Washington pontificate on what he has seen as he travels in the guise of a dollar bill.
GMOs
When companies withhold information or attempt to keep consumers in the dark about the products that the company sells, consumers cannot make decisions about the quality of life that they want to have. Even through the 1980s when reporters were breaking the news about cigarettes and the way that companies manipulate consumers including covering up the negative health consequences of smoking, tobacco companies were using their political and economic clout to throw up a smoke screen. They even went so far as to threaten to sue ABC when Day One broke the story about the consequences of smoking; their actions resulted in ABC apologizing because Disney would not have purchased them if they were under a law suit. It also had a cooling effect on other news sources at other channels. Six months later, the story broke again, and the facts were and are irrefutable.
This type of cover up is currently going on with companies that profit from the creation and maintenance of genetically modified organisms. These companies claim that the only difference between a naturally grown fruit or vegetable and one that has been modified with genes from fish, other animals and/or plants is that the company owns the gene and thus anyone growing a GMO whether intended or not must pay them for the product. However, rather than giving the consumer a choice about what to eat, they continue to fight legislation that would require GMO labelling. Consumers cannot effectively choose between products that have been genetically modified and those that haven’t.
Misinformation
There are good economic reasons why a company would want to mislead the public about what it product does or does not do. Years spent developing Vioxx means that a company needs to recover those costs and earn a profit. Covering up the fact that Vioxx is linked to heart disease and only talking about its therapeutic effects is a kind of misinformation. While there are laws against misleading advertising, it is often hard to prove, and even harder to sue a company for those types of crimes.
When BP states in a commercial that it set aside billions for the gulf recovery effort, it isn’t really lying; it is just omitting the fact that the money set aside was negotiated with the American government to pay for the damages done to the Gulf Coats economy, and BP is now fighting the settlement. Their commercials are all about how they are working to make the environment better, but the actuality is they are balking at cleaning up the mess that they made.
Those who control the information
John Mayer sang it best: Those that control the information can bend it all they want. When pharmaceutical companies target commercials at the consumer and products at the doctor, it is hard to tell who to trust. If the doctor receives financial compensation for prescribing a certain medication over any other, it is, at a minimum, a violation of the doctor-patient relationship. Big pharma is only secondarily interested in a cure. Its first priority is that of profit, especially any publicly traded pharmaceutical company. If you can’t trust your doctor to give you unbiased information, who can you trust? It certainly isn’t the news media who panders to companies that may sue.
We live in an age of unprecedented information. We know more about most celebrity lives than what we actually put in our mouths. We know more about most sports stars than what we are doing to the environment and to each other. We know more about what is going on in foreign countries, as spun by our favorite news channels, than we know about what is going on with our neighbors.
Unfortunately, all of this mis-, dis- and unimportant information has eroded our abilities to be the informed citizenry required for a well-functioning capitalist and democratic society. Until we can get a handle on what the truth is, people will ignore facts and trust that voting on them or taking them to a court of law will change the facts. However, if facts could be changed by popular vote, the world would be flat, and if they could be changed by a court of law, corporations would become actual people and money would become actual speech. Imagine being able to shake a conglomeration’s hand or listening to George Washington pontificate on what he has seen as he travels in the guise of a dollar bill.