In this Era of Secret Emails: Remember the Secret Memorandum?
Matriculated articles mashed by Pat Darnell | Oct 27, 2015 | Bryan TX
"A Memo to explain American economic system under attack," yes, that is the opening to the Powell Manifesto. Powell's assumption that there is an American Economic System should be the preamble to Powell's ramble. The American financial System is basically a "Boom/Bust" cycle that repeats ad nauseam. Is that a secure system?
Powell Memo also known as the Powell Manifesto or Powell Memorandum: Found in the Memo: ..."Perhaps the single most effective antagonist of American business is Ralph Nader, who — thanks largely to the media — has become a legend in his own time and an idol of millions of Americans. A recent article in Fortune speaks of Nader as follows: “The passion that rules in him — and he is a passionate man — is aimed at smashing utterly the target of his hatred, which is corporate power. He thinks, and says quite bluntly, that a great many corporate executives belong in prison — for defrauding the consumer with shoddy merchandise, poisoning the food supply with chemical additives, and willfully manufacturing unsafe products that will maim or kill the buyer. He emphasizes that he is not talking just about ‘fly-by-night hucksters’ but the top management of blue chip business."... (EGBERTO WILLIES. DECEMBER 26, 2013. LINK )
'via Blog this'
Were Ralph Nader not so passionate, he would be sage for us who inherit all of Corporate Dog Ass-ity in America. What a mess in 2015, corporations take from a locale and give absolutely nothing back. And if they advertise that they give back, it is a gambit that you will believe them in their lies.
That's not the only attacker of the American economic system. In his obvious paranoia, Powell claims attacks from:
"...The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism come from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians. In most of these groups the movement against the system is participated in only by minorities. Yet, these often are the most articulate, the most vocal, the most prolific in their writing and speaking..." (ibid. Willies)Then with another broad brush stroke Powell identifies the crux of this bizkit that in 2015 has come to a head:
".. Favorite current targets are proposals for tax incentives through changes in depreciation rates and investment credits. These are usually described in the media as “tax breaks,” “loop holes” or “tax benefits” for the benefit of business. As viewed by a columnist in the Post, such tax measures would benefit “only the rich, the owners of big companies.”The Powell Memo/Manifesto is kaputz. Powell is a Corporate Putz. His Memo is a piece of crap. Anyone who believes this Memo has no credit as they are so far out of the loop of reality, that there is no hope for them.
It is dismaying that many politicians make the same argument that tax measures of this kind benefit only “business,” without benefit to “the poor.” The fact that this is either political demagoguery or economic illiteracy is of slight comfort. This setting of the “rich” against the “poor,” of business against the people, is the cheapest and most dangerous kind of politics...." (ibid. Willies)
Powell too often defaults "...survival of what we call the free enterprise system, and all that this means for the strength and prosperity of America and the freedom of our people..." as if American Economy is an established form of business worldwide. Bollocks! If I may, the most recognized form of business world wide is probably "barter." Powell is delusional in his broad stroke discussion of American business. I can only speculate he has no business experience. He was an elitist lawyer politician. Poor old Powell, he thinks America is a nation of collective minded worker bees, who work only to please the "system."
CONCLUSION
The world would be a better place if Lewis F. Powell, Jr.had not written this secret Memo to the Chamber of Commerce back in 1971. The very system Powell thinks he is defending, American Economic System, has in 2015 developed into a plutocracy, fascist system that takes what it needs from regions and gives nothing back, all for the eternal dividend it pays its stockholder.
SOURCES
Here are the sources listed at the end of Powell's Memo:
"...Although origins, sources and causes are complex and interrelated, and obviously difficult to identify without careful qualification, there is reason to believe that the campus is the single most dynamic source ..." (ibid memorandum. Willies)
Conclusion (Powell's)
"It hardly need be said that the views expressed above are tentative and suggestive. The first step should be a thorough study. But this would be an exercise in futility unless the Board of Directors of the Chamber accepts the fundamental premise of this paper, namely, that business and the enterprise system are in deep trouble, and the hour is late."Footnotes (Powell’s)
Variously called: the “free enterprise system,” “capitalism,” and the “profit system.” The American political system of democracy under the rule of law is also under attack, often by the same individuals and organizations who seek to undermine the enterprise system._______________________Reference
Richmond News Leader, June 8, 1970. Column of William F. Buckley, Jr.
N.Y. Times Service article, reprinted Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 17, 1971.
Stewart Alsop, Yale and the Deadly Danger, Newsweek, May 18. 1970.
Editorial, Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 7, 1971.
Dr. Milton Friedman, Prof. of Economics, U. of Chicago, writing a foreword to Dr. Arthur A. Shenfield’s Rockford College lectures entitled “The Ideological War Against Western Society,” copyrighted 1970 by Rockford College.
Fortune. May, 1971, p. 145. This Fortune analysis of the Nader influence includes a reference to Nader’s visit to a college where he was paid a lecture fee of $2,500 for “denouncing America’s big corporations in venomous language . . . bringing (rousing and spontaneous) bursts of applause” when he was asked when he planned to run for President.
The Washington Post, Column of William Raspberry, June 28, 1971.
Jeffrey St. John, The Wall Street Journal, May 21, 1971.
Barron’s National Business and Financial Weekly, “The Total Break with America, The Fifth Annual Conference of Socialist Scholars,” Sept. 15, 1969.
On many campuses freedom of speech has been denied to all who express moderate or conservative viewpoints.
It has been estimated that the evening half-hour news programs of the networks reach daily some 50,000,000 Americans.
One illustration of the type of article which should not go unanswered appeared in the popular “The New York” of July 19, 1971. This was entitled “A Populist Manifesto” by ultra liberal Jack Newfield — who argued that “the root need in our country is ‘to redistribute wealth’.”
The recent “freeze” of prices and wages may well be justified by the current inflationary crisis. But if imposed as a permanent measure the enterprise system will have sustained a near fatal blow.
(ibid. Willies. h/t Reclaim Democracy)
http://egbertowillies.com/2013/12/26/powell-memo-business-powell-manifesto/
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/12/26/powell-memo-gop-blueprint/
http://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/
