Anyone watched The Corporation?

[Redux]

a more uncommon documentary criticizing corporations and the impact of their malpractices. I was totally shocked when they mentioned that in some countries, water is completely privatized, even rainwater.

so, anyone seen it ?

[askDNA]

What country privatizes rainwater?!?!

[elguapo]

la agua e nuestra carajo

-->bolivia

[ArmedPacifist]

I enjoyed it.

[Thor]

Yeah, I watched it.

[PeterRJG]

What country privatizes rainwater?!?!

More to the point, how do they enforce it? Do they sue people who stand out in the rain with their mouths open?

[Rictor]

About 3 times. First in the theatre when it first came out. Then again when they showed it on TV. Then again when I taped it off TV.

Great stuff, and with a very wide range of topics. In the beggining, it was very obscure, but since then (about a year and a half ago) people seem to be taking notice. Yay.

edit: check the news. There are huge protests in Bolvia, pushing for a greater taxation on the energy industry (mostly foreign multinational corporations) or even outright nationalization.

[Thor]

I always watch that kind of stuff. I find myself sharing some of the views but seldom the solutions.

Privatization of water is something that doesn't sound nice in any way. But think about a country in Africa, were the women spend most of their days transporting fresh water to their families. The government is unable to provide a water supply system. In this scenario a private company steps in and at a low cost provides the whole country with fresh water. The women can work with other stuff and the lives of everyone is improved.

[Thor]

n/a

[Rictor]

I always watch that kind of stuff. I find myself sharing some of the views but seldom the solutions.

Privatization of water is something that doesn't sound nice in any way. But think about a country in Africa, were the women spend most of their days transporting fresh water to their families. The government is unable to provide a water supply system. In this scenario a private company steps in and at a low cost provides the whole country with fresh water. The women can work with other stuff and the lives of everyone is improved.

Yeah well, the low cost part is iffy. I think that in such an instance, the government could (theoretically) provide the needed infrastructure just as cheaply as a corporation could, and from then on would be able provide that water with no consideration towards profit, which would benefit the people since water would be available at little if any cost. The generally accepted rule-of-thumb (which I agree with) is that the necesseties of life (food, water, basic medicine etc) should not be placed into the hands of a private corporation, for a very simple reason.

Corporations exist to make money. Not to make people happy, or create jobs, or make the world a prosperous place,
but to accumulate wealth. Granted, as a consequence of their money-making, they very often do improve the world, but that's not the bottom line. This is all fine and good, as long as they are restrained by laws, which do take happiness, morality, freedom etc into consideration. I think the seperation of business and state is no less important than church and state, because in both instances (church and business) people's well-being is not the primary concern. But as we all know, money buys power, and in particularly weak nations, a corporation can exert undue pressure on the government to create or abolish laws in order to create a more suitable environment for making money. And back in the bad old days (and in some cases, to this day) if the government chooses the well being of their people over the profit of foreign companies...well, man the posts cause the Marines are likely to pay you friendly visit.

hmm, I didn't intend to rant, but there you go.