Just when you thought corporate ethics couldn't get any creepier, there is news that some of the country's largest companies are spending big money to stop we the public from being able to fix their faulty products. You heard that, right? So-called right to repair laws, appending in nearly a dozen states, including New York. They'd require electronic companies, for example, to sell replacement parts and tools and make repair guides available to the public. Makers oppose repairs. They'd rather just sell us all new stuff or forces to sign up for their proprietary replacement parts and costly service programs. Apple, Verizon, Lexmark, Medtronic, even Toyota and Caterpillar are among the corporations who are going all out to squash right to repair legislation. Vice has a whole beat following the dispute on their motherboard blog. The right to repair SPAC caught my eye because I'm a tinker at first of all, from old cars to old lamps. I love cracking open a piece of broker machinery, studying how it works and getting it functioning again. It beats throwing it away, and not just for pocketbook reasons. Computers have already made the tinkerers life harder. Software is patented, laws forbid unlicensed repairs. Landfills are filling up with toxic components and hard plastic cases. That would be reason enough to pay attention, but there's also the David vs. Goliath aspect. According to New York State's Joint Commission on Public Ethics, the company's spending is dwarfed their opposition by thousands of dollars to one. And the last standout part of this is what it reminds us about capitalism. Corporate driven media and captured politicians have taught generations of us that businesses just want freedom from. Freedom from taxes, from regulations, limits, you name it. But what they really want is freedom too to control the very government they mock. They're not against government, not if they own it, which takes us to something even creepier. You may have heard that the Trump budget would slash some $72 billion from services for disabled people, including those injured on the job and their kids. The cuts amount almost exactly to what just one corporation, Apple, is off-shoring to avoid paying taxes. 72 billion in cuts vs. 75 billion in Apple's off-shored accounts, corporate ethics is a contradiction in terms. Maybe it's time to retire the phrase altogether.