Lessons Emerging from Volkswagen’s Crime of the Century

My colleague Brian McGowan notes on the Volkswagen scandal:  The one thing that all of this does prove again is that no corporation is ever to be trusted to “do the right thing” in spite of the fact that one portion of our political system seems to think that business should be allowed to police itself. Business self-monitoring and policing should never be allowed.

It was most certainly a very dark day for corporate integrity, and a crushing blow to those who think that we really don’t need all that nasty government regulation on the basis that corporations can be trusted to act decently and honestly.

The good news is that it provides an occasion on which the whole world gets to rethink the role of corporations in our lives, and how, perhaps, it’s time to take a little of that power back.  This has huge ramifications in the world today, e.g., the overturning of Citizens United, which is arguably the single most important action we could possibly take in re-establishing a functioning democracy.

Btw, though the justice actions will take a long time to unfold, this is going to get really dramatic.  Unlike GM’s massive recall where, astonishingly, there was not a single criminal indictment, it’s extremely likely that a whole raft of these VW people will be making license plates for a very long time; needless to say, that’s just fine with me.