Saturday, October 9, 2010

Corporate Theft

What is theft? Very simply, it is taking something that is not yours from someone else. If you take a chocolate bar, and leave the store without paying, that is theft. A simple concept that has served humanity well. For the most part, there is a strong social stigma against theft: we perceive it as being wrong. (Yes, there is a great deal of ambiguity - a man who steals a loaf of bread from a wealthy merchant to feed his starving children is probably commuting a far less heinous crime than a man who steals money from a child beggar.) And yet today, we allow theft to occur constantly around us, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, all around the world.

I shall be blunt: the world's natural resources do not belong to corporations. Corporate exploitation of natural resources is theft. It is not a business opportunity, nor a potential source of feedstock for the industry that we have grown to love oh-so-much. It is theft, plain and simple: taking what does not belong to you, as I'm sure any six-year old will be quite happy to tell you.

The world's natural resources do not belong to corporations: they belong to the inhabitants of this planet.

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