Patriotic Stamp of Approval

I’ve never been a big fan of signing online petitions, forwarding cute or politically motivated e-mails or perpetuating viral Facebook post, but tonight I made an exception of sorts.  

The Whitehouse.gov website made big news this week with a couple of interesting petitions.  1) the nut who petitioned to have Piers Morgan deported for his stance on gun control (regardless of your view on gun control, surely we can agree he behaved ridiculously and didn’t do himself any favors by stating that he also believes President Bush ordered the 911 attack)  and 2⁾ the petition for the U.S. to build a Starwars style Death Star.  

I like the idea of the website.  It provides one more way to hear what our countries citizens are thinking.   We all have ideas and really should be sharing them.  That is what a representative government is all about.   So, I created a petition tonight. 

For quite some time now, there has been debate on the concept of corporate responsibility in this country.  The Occupy Wall Street protest certainly created a sense of awareness on the issue, making it a major Presidential Campaign issue.  The question of “what responsibility corporations do have to this country/” is a good one.   At the foundation of the argument is the idea of collectivism vs. individualism, and which philosophy is more true to our country’s founding principles.  

As the debate raged, and I listened to both sides of the argument, I came to believe that there could be common ground on the issue.  The pure free market thought suggest that businesses are only responsible to themselves and should not be regulated by the government – any government, which is at the core of the Individualism argument that was made very popular by Ayn Rand, author of “The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged”.  She said “I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."  Collectivism, on the other hand, would emphasize the idea that we are all in this together, and a have a responsibility to each other, and that our Government of “We the People” has the responsibility to ensure that principle is foundational in its governance.  

Most people know that I lean more on the latter then I do on former.  I do believe though that we, as individuals, have as much, if not more, of a responsibility, to speak our mind by the way we live.   In other words, we should support the people, the politicians, the issues and the businesses that support our principles – our beliefs.   We wouldn’t need as much government regulation if we did that.   We would truly be speaking up for our beliefs with our actions.    

So, I created a petition to encourage such action.  The petition asks that a “Patriotic Stamp of Approval” be created.  The Patriotic Stamp would limit tax breaks and give preferred status, to any company that meets patriot friendly requirements. I suggest the program standard be heavily marketed so that consumers can know which companies are truly contributing to the general welfare of the nation. I suggest that the government, we the people, promote and encourage the support of these patriot responsible businesses. Examples of issues being rated may be:

1.      Does the company offer quality health insurance to its employees?

2.      Does the company pay its fair share in taxes?

3.      Does the company encourage education and training of its employees?

4.      Does the company support equal opportunities?

5.      Does the company hire veterans?

6.      Does the company pay a fair wage to its employees and/or provide profit sharing?

7.      Is the company environmentally friendly?

8.      Does the company keep jobs in the U.S.?

9.      Does the company hide their assets in off shore accounts?

A similar venture was promoted not too long ago with the “Buy American” program.   This would be a much broader program and really give us the tool we need to support those businesses who truly support the principles of our country.   

Perhaps if we as individuals were more selective with the companies that we did business with, there would less of a need for regulations to force a business to simply do the right thing, and at the same time, increase the profits of those businesses who do the right thing, day in and day out. 

I know there are a lot of questions to be answered about such a proposal, but I think there is a concept that both sides of the aisle could embrace.  So, if you agree, you can find and sign my petition at http://wh.gov/EcmX .

The petition requires 150 signatures before it becomes visible on the whitehouse.gov website.   It has to have 25,000 signatures before the Whitehouse officially responds.  What do you think? 

Bill