Government a problem? Try the private sector! (Score 1)

<rant>

A lot of the posts here express worry about the government using this information. This is probably typical American distrust of the government, a point of view that is revindicated every few months. What Americans should really be worrying about is this information in the hands of the private sector, where corporate loopholes and further lobbying by the telecommunications industry will certainly allow this information to be distributed even farther.

In the US, the people are supposed to control the government. If we don't like someone, we can vote them out of office. A corporation, however, exists as long as it is profitable--sometimes even longer. Imagine the profit to be gained first from selling information about our telephone communcations, then from compiling, classifying, and organizing that information in ways that allow you to track individual customers' behavior.

Private corporations have no responsibility to the public apart from the regulations imposed on them by the government. This fact underscores the vacuousness of arguments stating that if you want change in how corporations work, you need to do that inside a corporation. All the talk about ``corporate citizenship'' and ``corporate responsiblity'' disguises the fact that a corporation is an amoral entity; it will do whatever is necessary to make a profit.

Telephone communications corporations stand to profit from the sale of personal and private information, other corporations such as telemarketers and perhaps new industries will profit from its compilation, classification, organization, and distribution. There is now little to stop a telephone company from creating an affiliate for exactly this purpose.

The government is supposed to protect us from corporate misconduct, but our federal government is being run by people who owe their political existence to corporate America. The people still have the ability to empower themselves, but it takes so much time to make your voice heard through all the layers of government between us and them that many people's outrage will just turn into passive dissatisfaction. This growing sense of weakness in the face of the overpowering force of special (corporate) interests is the root cause of voter apathy in the US. We know there are problems, but we feel powerless to change anything.

</rant>