ArcaMax

Social media has been lighting up like fireworks, with myriad Trump voters exclaiming, "I didn't know he meant me!" For example, many MAGA cheerleaders are now shocked to learn that his rallying cry to eliminate "Obamacare" means killing the popular Affordable Care Act that provides their health coverage!

Perhaps the most stunned, though, are many Trumpers who had cheered his anti-immigrant, send-'em-back-where-they-came-from tirades. They assumed he only meant the murderers, rapists and cat-eaters he frantically warned about -- not their own son's wonderful Honduran wife; not the beloved family running the popular Mexican cafe in town; and surely not their hardworking landscaping crew! Just the "bad" migrants, right?

Wrong. President-elect Donald Trump says he'll declare a national emergency, ordering America's military to conduct a mass roundup and deportation operation, including police agencies making workplace raids and neighborhood sweeps. They even expect they'll make "collateral arrests" of U.S. citizens. Surely, you might think, such indiscriminate, un-American, mass incarceration can't really happen here! But Trump is already putting thuggish right-wing enforcers in place to make it happen.

Moreover, a network of Trump's big corporate funders is gleefully rushing to cash in on this new capture-and-jail industry. Meet GEO Group, for example, a multibillion-dollar private penitentiary conglomerate that has been a profiteering house of horrors for inmates and workers across the country. But its top executives were huge donors to Trump's ascension, and they now tell Wall Street investors they expect to gain $400 million a year in new business incarcerating Trump's immigration suspects.

There's a name for a government based on xenophobia, demagoguery and greed: "kakistocracy" -- government by the worst people in society.

CAN CORPORATE PROFIT AND MORALITY BE COMPATIBLE?

Is "corporate ethics" an oxymoron? Do you have to be a jerk to be a successful CEO? Is exploitation the only path to profit?

The good news is that many companies, big and small, in the food economy are blazing a different path through Wall Street's jungle of greed, demonstrating that money and morality can be compatible. Texas supermarket chain H-E-B, for example, has drawn an intensely loyal customer base by 1) investing in good wages and benefits for employees, 2) showing up in such emergencies as pandemics, hurricanes, freezes, etc. to give essential supplies and hands-on help, and 3) being an involved and supportive neighbor to the hundreds of unique communities it serves.

Also, Maine Grains is "relocalizing" the business of milling grain by working with local farmers who'd been abandoned by global grain marketers like Ardent and Gold Medal. They're producing nutrient-rich flours from heritage grains, boosting the local economy in the process. Then there's Bob's Red Mill, which also artfully mills its products from diverse, natural grains -- and it's 100% employee-owned.

These are part of a rising business alternative to the selfish, profiteering ethic of Fortune 500 titans. Called certified B Corporations, they definitely exist to make a profit, but they are equally focused on having a positive social impact, prioritizing fair wages, environmental protections and healthy communities as core elements of their missions, even making those goals legal requirements of their corporate charter.

Ben & Jerry's, Amy's Kitchen, King Arthur Baking and New Belgium Brewery are just a few more of some 3,800 other businesses now organized as B Corps. Though not pretending to be perfect, they're at least striving to be more than money-grubbers, instead trying to contribute to the common good. For more information on the products and practices of B Corps, go to BCorporation.net.

To find out more about Jim Hightower and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

----

Copyright 2024 Creators Syndicate, Inc.