First we heard that DuPont, Duke Power, General Electric and seven other major corporations have joined a coalition of environmental groups to issue a report called "A Call to Action", which lays out a plan to address global warming.
"The time has come for constructive action that draws strength equally from business, government, and non-governmental stakeholders," said Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric. "These recommendations should catalyze legislative action that encourages innovation and fosters economic growth while enhancing energy security and balance of trade, ensuring U.S. leadership on an issue of significance to our country and the world."
That's correct. Some of our biggest corporations have joined with environmental groups to work with the government as the third leg of this duplicitous triangle to fix the climate. Never mind that we haven't even figured out how to predict the weather -- this group believes they can change the climate.
And right behind this news we now hear yesterday that Walmart, Intel Corp., AT&T and Kelly Services have joined with Service Employees International Union to call for "quality, affordable" health care for every American by 2012. And of course they called for this action in Washington, DC, which means that government will be the third partner in the alliance, as well.
Why does a small business and entrepreneurship blogger care about what these big corporations are up to? Because both movements will end up dragging small business owners into the regulatory and tax messes that these alliances will inevitably create. Even though America's largest corporations have lost much of their economic power, they have not lost their ability to exercise their political power. These efforts are simply ways for these corporations to cut their losses and reduce their uncertainty. With climate issues and health insurance looming as unknowns, their stock prices suffer. With a plan -- no matter how poor the public policy and dire the long-term consequences for our country -- they will calm stock analysts by reducing these two sources of uncertainty and stabilize their stock prices.
What is good for Wall Street is no longer what it good for Main Street. The outcomes of these alliances will hurt the entrepreneurial portion of the economy. But unfortunately, the voices of small businesses are still weak in the political realm.
