Hail Iceland, Saviour of reason!

[james armstrong]

Sent this letter to Iceland's ambassadorin London.




Dear Ambassador,

 

Subject: Iceland’s  people’s
vote not to refund UK Government
for failed bank.

 

As a UK citizen I sincerely thank the people of Iceland for coming to the right decision.

(and perhaps inadvertently)   exposing the anomaly at the heart of corporate entities.

 

In UK Barclays bank have a
capitalization of 24% the GDP of UK

Landisbank had a
capitalization in excess of the Iceland
GDP.

 Corporations clearly exhibit  extraordinary wealth disparity compared
with  people. 

I note recompensing the UK Government would cost each Iceland person  the absurd amount of  £9,000. 



That the people (in this case
of Iceland) should pay for the 
sins of a corporation is unthinkable. It is equally preposterous of HMG
to ask this of either the people of Iceland or the people of Britain, or, of the people who lost out through landisbanki.

 

Who is to pay?

Any government even proposing
the people should pay when the debts or losses 
have been incurred by corporations , has clearly lost touch with  the contract which underlies society and with
the role of government itself .

Why should  one sector 
of society, people,   undewrite
the wrongdoings of  a subsidiary sector, whether
corporations or government? 

To  ensure the continuance of a sound banking
system is only an argument from convenience (tho’ a very strong argument.) in
order to preserve the value of the currency and the ‘trust’ behind it and trust
in the banking system.   

That  argument from convenience must  give way (even under its own terms) from a
stronger argument from a greater convenience .

 

It is  more convenient (and much more viable) for other
corporations to shoulder the debts and consequences of one of their members. 

 

Existing giant corporations
should repay the people who have lost out from Landisbank.

including corporations from UK as well as from Iceland. 

Any other arrangement  invites another default in future and on an
even greater scale and by another corporation.    Conversely 
corporations will think twice, and regulate themselves  knowing that 
defaults must cost the sector.   

 

Every  corporation trading in UK already has an enormously
privileged status, having been conferred with a sort of honorary human
existence , and benefiting from personal rights, action at law, and above all,
access to trade with the sovereign people (in this case of Britain.)

It has cost the people
of  Britain, all the travails in one thousand years of history,
not  excluding major wars in 1914 and
1939 to establish a viable stable and productive society which corporations can
now access by registering at company house in City Road, London for £100.   This
can only be explained by national   

 

CORPORATE PRIVILEGE 

But the extent of this  privilege now frequently dwarfs that of
individuals in many aspects.

 

Unlike people, corporations are
not finite and may  enjoy mature ‘lives’
of some two hundred years and more – they can canibalise other corporations and
may exist  in more than one country ,

amnesia .  

 

For £100 registration
fee  they emerge full grown into
maturity- a condition  which takes a
person twenty years and cost  maybe
£100,000 .  

 

The good people of Iceland have exposed the 
failure in the social contract, people, government and  corporations.

 

CORPORATIONS’ IMMUNITY
FROM  LEGAL CENSURE 

Almost daily we in Britain hear of some giant corporation having been fined in
amounts which clearly define the crime or misdemeanor as most serious.  BP, Microsoft, Matalan, Woolworths, all were
fined over £1million. Lately  by Office
of Fair Trading in UK, 104 construction firms were fined  for rigging bids for public contracts are
examples.  Just one of those companies
was fined £838,000- yet the Dorset local government authority (LGA)  have subsequently entered into agreement with
this company for a development in this town. The LGA also  loaned or granted this company some £200,000 to
£2million .   

 

Another example is  Ms Goldman Sachs ,bankers, being fined
$550million in USA and a further £17.5million by Financial` Services Authority in UK.  For an
individual this would attract lifelong stigmatization, for companies – little
notice  or a passing mention in the press
and generally silence on BBC .

REMEDIES 

The urgent need is to
redefine the conditions of existence of each corporation.

A first step is to set a
variable termination date for each corporation now and in future on
registration.   Secondly, after a growth
period of some  ten years to  charge a realistic annual substantial fee on
every corporation, graduated to the 
size, and  profits and
capitalization of each corporation.  

Trade associations of each
sector of industry and commerce should carry legal responsibility for the  debts and good conduct of members (which
membership should be compulsory).

 

Lobbying of MPs and
Government by corporations (now endemic) should be illegal. 

 

Please thank the people of Iceland for  exposing
the reality of  the present out of
control, too big, too privileged , too politic , too unregulated, too  freeloading  corporate sector.

 

If it cost the UK government £3 billion for this lesson it would be a
very very cheap price. 

Of course it need not
cost  HMG , £1 ; the total cost should be
passed on by HMG to the corporate sector in UK and to any corporations in Iceland  who are able
to contribute, on the principle that corporations have a transnational
existence. . 

 

It could be most constructive
if you  are able to pass this information
on to interested parties in Iceland.   If I can
help take the proposal further please let me know.

 

Yours faithfully,                             James Armstrong.                        11 April 2011

                                                                 Dorset,
 UK 

JCA: Ice

 

 

    


 		 	   		  
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