1) Policy Focus: Socially Responsible or Just Plain Socialism?

In a "Community Voices" column at MinnPost.com State Sen. John Marty argues for "progressive" legislation that would change corporate design to "encourage" corporate leaders to focus on the "well being of the community" (guess who gets to decide that!!) According to the esteemed Sen. Marty corporate laws should enable business owners to profit (thanks!) but that it is "unethical" for businesses to maximize profits for their own sake. According to Sen. Marty some "good" business leaders want to look out for the public interest but are concerned that their fiduciary responsibility to stockholders precludes them from paying better wages or protecting the environment if profit margins are affected. Obviously Senator Marty has never heard of the Target corporation, or the billions of dollars in corporate charitable giving distributed every year.

Of course, Sen. Marty has a government solution to this problem.

The Minnesota Responsible Business Corporation Act would encourage companies to incorporate as "socially responsible businesss." The corporation's board and executives would then be protected from lawsuits for failing to maximize stockholder profits. In addition, the legislation would mandate worker and public interest representation onto the corporate board, and would ensure that corporate leadership regularly considers its impact on the public. The act would specifically require in statute that 20 percent of a corporation's board include "representation of, and advocacy for," the interests of employees and 20 percent of a corporation's board must represent and advocate "for the public interest."

If this doesn't sound ripe for corruption and regular shakedowns of corporations, I don't know what does. As usual a liberal politician is using the language of "responsibility" and "morality" as a backdoor means to take greater and greater control over the private sector. Hugo Chavez anyone?

2) The David Strom Show

The David Strom Show at the MSRA weekend

The David Strom Show sponsored by the Minnesota Free Market Institute is broadcast weekly on AM 1280 The Patriot Saturdays 9-11 A.M. Podcasts of the show are available at Townhall.com and also directly via iTunes. (See our radio show page for details). The show is now downloaded over 11,000 times a month!

Last week's (6/21) show was Broadcast LIVE from the Minnesota Street Rod Association Back to the 50s Weekend at the State Fairgrounds.

Hour 1: Guests from the Minnesota Street Rod Association, Martin Moody and Bill Strusinski, both of whom work on legislative affairs for the MSRA. Bill Strusinski also owns a Chevrolet dealership in Hinckley.

Hour 2: Guest: American Petroleum Institute Senior Economic Policy Analyst Rayola Dougher

Audio highlights of the 6/21 show are available here.For commercial-free show podcast downloads visit the show page at townhall.com or subscribe via iTunes. To find out ahead of time who the guests on the show will be, sign up for our action eList and check the RADIO box. (one email per week).

3) Listen this Weekend to win an iPod Nano!

This Saturday June 28th, The David Strom Show will hold a drawing for a free 4MB iPod Nano!To enter, go to the Join page for our action e-lists and check the box for the iPod nano giveaway!While you are there Please join (check the boxes) for one or more of our email lists:

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4) Think Light Rail Saves Energy? Read this.

Writing in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cato Senior Policy Fellow Randal O'Toole says "[St. Louis] Metro's buses today consume more energy and emit more greenhouse gases, per passenger mile, than a typical sport utility vehicle. Its light-rail lines do better, but consume almost as much energy, and emit almost as much greenhouse gas, per passenger mile, as the average car. Moreover, even where rail operations do save energy, this savings almost never makes up for the huge energy cost of rail construction. Highway construction also consumes energy, but because highways are more heavily used than rail lines, their energy cost per passenger mile is far lower. If we ignore construction costs, many rail operations do consume less energy than the average auto — but almost none consume less than a Toyota Prius. ...to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it is far more cost effective to encourage people to drive more fuel-efficient cars than to build rail transit lines."

5) In Case You Missed it: Recent Commentary from the Minnesota Free Market Institute

"Progressivism is politics as religion," writes Minnesota Free Market senior policy fellow Craig Westover in a Pioneer Press commentary, The Problem with Progressives."Left-leaning progressivism strives to impose values on society every bit as aggressively as the Christian right pushing a moral agenda of 'family values.' … Progressivism is ultimately about total control. … Progressivism is immune to restraint; it respects no constitutional limits on government. … Consensus among "experts," the high priests of progressivism, determines how much growth is just (what level of private profit becomes "unreasonable")."

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