Ergo, "Corporate Crackdown" has been a longstanding headline because consumer confidence mistrusts corporations. Since their inception, during the turn-of-the-century era of "robber barons", corporations have sprung up like weeds, choking the sunlight from the "playing field" of business.
Don't believe me?
A Harvard business professor described what an ideal Corporation should be like, "The eagle: soaring, prepared to strike but not a vulture, noble, visionary, majestic that people can believe in and be inspired by. That's a logo for a principled company." As the interviewer finished, the camera kept recording, and the professor got up saying, "Ok guys, enough bullsh!t."
I guess he doesn't see that ideal as real.
A 2003 documentary on the issue made the following points:
-Like the telephone system, Corporations reach everywhere with extraordinary power.
-They are artificial creations trying to devour as much profit at anyone's expense.
-Dr. Frankenstein's monster overwhelmed and overpowered him, as the corporate form has done to mankind.
-They grew from the Industrial Age, focused on more productivity per man-hour. It hasn't changed since.
-Government subsidies during the Civil War created growth of corporations, railroads, banks and manufacturers. In turn, those entities desired more power and less restriction. (The 14th Amendment was created, at that same time, for equality to African Americans. Which entity is more powerful today?)
-Soon, corporate lawyers pleaded with our Judicial System that America couldn't deprive them of "Life, Liberty, Property or the Pursuit of Happiness", because they were "people", too; a corporation is a person. The Supreme Court agreed!
-What's particularly grotesque is that the 14th amendment was intended to protect the rights of underprivileged people. Yet, who actually benefited was corporations! From 1890-1910, 307 cases came before the courts: 288 by corporations, and only 18 by African Americans.
-Ironically, the strategic notion of "incorporating" a business is to avoid personally liability. Unlike a partnership or sole proprietorship (which are truly "people"), a corporation wants the rights of "a person" without being held liable or taxed as "a person". Best of both worlds! Legally allowed!
-During the Depression-era, Imperial Steel Incorporated was, under the law, a person--with legal rights of a person: to buy/sell property, borrow money, file lawsuit in court, and be sued (instead of its owners). But, with its immunity, it could behave like a bratty diplomat, caring only for its foreign stakeholders... and not its "host community".
-The problem with "corporate citizens" is that they have no souls or body to punish.
-All publicly-traded corporations are designed with a disturbing characteristic: they are required by law to place the desires of their owners/stockholders above the common good. Therefore, they make sure that other people pay the bills for their impact on society. Just like abandoned mining equipment...
or junkyards, resulting from over-consuming...
...or how they leave it to (bribed) governments to pay for military protection of their assets, or to build their roads, or to clean their pollution. (That's been going on since the East India Trading Company of the 1700s).
-Thus, the taxpayers don't have a say in how their money is spent, because it's needed to clean up the problems of wealthier corporations.
-Corporations like Liz Claiborne sold $178 jackets, made in El Salvador, while paying the workers $0.75 per jacket. Some of the workers were 13-years-old.
-Unapologetic companies feel that, regardless of such insufficient payroll, they're still improving the lives of starving people in Bangladesh or China.
-Nike makes clothes in the Dominican Republic and pays $0.70 per hour, so the wages equal 3/10 of 1% of retail price!
-Corporations study the science of exploitation.
-Toward the end the Great Depression, "New Deal" president Franklin Roosevelt was pressured to approving the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. It provides that "with respect to matters concerning the national security of the United States," the President or the head of an Executive Branch agency may exempt companies from certain critical legal obligations. These include keeping accurate "books, records, and accounts" and maintaining "a system of internal accounting controls sufficient" to ensure the propriety of financial transactions and the preparation of financial statements in compliance with "generally accepted accounting principles." What's the point of having laws or "generally accepted accounting principles"? (It's no surprise that in 2006, president Bush--who widened the loopholes for some many crooked businesses--delegated that power to someone outside the Oval Office).
-In 1940, a new era began of the ability for Oil Companies to synthesize/create new chemicals that never existed before, for any purpose, at virtually no cost: rubber tires, insecticides, fabric, toothbrushes, cosmetics, weed killers. (Wonder why cancer is consuming more people?)
-"DDT" was a wildly-popular new insecticide that American soldiers sprayed on foreigners--and that American farmers/home gardeners put on their food... which was actually fatal.
-Synthetic chemicals permeate our air/water and produce cancer, birth defects, global warming, and pollution. The warning signs were ignored by corporations/government nearly as long as it took to uncover the death toll from cigarettes. Incidentally, if you shoot someone, it's criminal. What's the difference if you expose someone to chemicals that you know will harm/kill them? Why is that wealthy industry held exempt from the law?
-In 1989, documents revealed that "global food giant" Monsanto--which could afford to do things the RIGHT way--instead used chemicals on cows to increase milk production (declared safe for cows/humans by the American Food Drug Administration [but not by Canada's]), that caused chronic inflammation in the heart/lungs/spleen as well as defects/infections in the cows... thus giving puss-tainted meat/milk to consumers. Drugs like RVGH, Posilac, and BST made the cows sick.
[Why is there only ONE organization for both Food & Drug?]
-Consuming such chemical antibiotics messes up human immune systems.
-Monsanto also created "Agent Orange" a toxic herbicide in Vietnam that caused 50,000 birth defects and innumerable cancers. Only American troops were able to sue Monsanto, which settled $80 million in damages... but never admitted guilt.
-Robert Monk began his career in Corporate Governance after witnessing an industrial paper mill polluting a local river (a secret nightly ritual) with its chemicals. He realized that in society's search for prosperity, they'd created a monster that would destroy them.
-A disgruntled FOX News Investigative Reporting team "blew the whistle" on Monsanto, after their network caved in to pressure from Monsanto NOT to broadcast the story about the harmful drugs. Thankfully, their conscience prompted them to release the facts anyway--via anonymous internet instead of corporate-owned media. It eventually aligned with Canada's accusations against Monsanto, and the world listened. Perhaps now, Monsanto will be stimulated to make a better item... or they'll find a better way to hide truth. (That's the problem with letting entities get too big). Perhaps, that's why you see so few Investigative Reporting nowadays; it's mostly onscreen silliness.
-Multinational Monitor is a corporate watchdog that recently reviewed top corporate crimes of the 1990s:
Exxon pled guilty for the Valdez Oil Spill disaster, paying $125 million in criminal fines; General Electric was guilty of defrauding the government and paid $9.5 million; Chevron was guilty of environmental violations and paid $6.5 million; IBM was guilty of illegal exports and paid $8.5 million; Pfizer was guilty of anti-trust violations and paid $20 million; Sears was guilty of financial fraud and paid $60 million; Roche was guilty of an anti-trust violation and paid $500 million.
Why hasn't it all stopped?
-In its pathology of commerce, too many corporations consider whether to obey the law or not, as a matter of cost-effectiveness or trade-offs.
-Corporate Espionage involves being a "predator".
-Wealth Usurpation is different than Wealth Creation. e.g.: the first fire departments were privatized, and if you didn't pay them for protection, they didn't help you. But, society evolved to supply such basic safety for the "common good". Too many arenas are going back away from that, towards privatization: schools, prisons, medical care, public water, beautiful land.
-Advertising Marketing is a monstrous business--often a battle between consumers and an industry that "launches" (literally, that's the word they use) ad strategies worth $12 billion annually.
-It's not ethical to bombard younger consumers that way.
-Powerful institutions, like popes, schools and military, specify their roles as virtuous, to win their supporters. Similarly, corporations like "loyal customers"--despite whatever substandard debacle they give those customers. So, they turn their customer-base into mindless consumers... seeking goods that they do not want, develop "created wants" for people to crave, impose a sense of futility upon them, and redirect their focus onto frivolous topics like ever-changing fashion consumption. Then, they'll be disconnected from each other and will rate their self-worth on how many "created wants" (logo-emblazoned products) they can have.
-Corporations break federal laws, coerce taxpayer money to be used for their interests, then demand bailout money to avoid bankruptcy (via taxpayer money), then refuse/avoid paying income taxes to the federal government.
-A great untold story of the Twentieth Century is the collusion between American corporations and Nazi Germany. First, corporations like Mr. Rockefeller's Standard Oil / Esso (now Exxon / Mobile) helped rebuild post-World-War-One Germany, after it's defeat by the Allies. There are also posters of that petroleum company supporting the early Nazi regime! During WWII, General Motors finagled ways to keep its Opel Motors going in Germany. Coca Cola couldn't see its product in Anti-American Nazi Germany, so it created Fanta Orange soda to sell there instead... all to keep Coke profits going (while millions of people died). In 1939, Hitler initiated his solution to his "Jewish Question". IBM sold and leased him their punch-card machinery and custom-designed the programs for the Nazi's to use on it: the vast assimilation/murder of millions of Jews. Such a traffic management program had an IBM setup at every railroad direction and concentration camp... for each Nazi territory/conquered nation. The Nazis also bought IBM's monthly servicing plans, which brought IBM personnel to the concentration camps. IBM claimed no control over its German subsidiary. However, confiscated paperwork from Nazi headquarters showed that the IBM contracts came from the New York offices in 1941 (the same year America entered the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor).
-Large portions of America's corporate elite despised what President Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" stood for. Intended to rescue "the average man" from a bank-induced "Depression-era", FDR made legislation that improved rights for workers against exploitation. Big Business fought him, selecting former Marine general Smedley Darlington Butler, as their mascot. Butler had served Big Business well as a gangster for capitalism--pacifying Mexico for American oil companies; Haiti and Cuba for National City Bank; Nicaragua for the Brown Brothers brokerage, Dominican Republic for sugar companies; Honduras for US Food companies; and China for Standard Oil. Thus, in 1934, corporations began a treasonous plan undo FDR's work. However, Butler finally had a "moment of conscience" and bared the truth to the newspapers. It implicated JPMorgan, DuPont Chemicals and Goodyear (the world's largest tire manufacturer). *[In 2002, DuPont was criticized for lobbying effectively in Congress against progressive legislation. DuPont is a member of these lobbying groups: International Chamber of Commerce, World Economics Forum, CropLife America, American Legislative Exchange Council, Chlorine Chemistry Council, US Council for International Business, Business Council on National Issues, Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association; Council on Competitiveness, The Business Council, The Business Roundtable, EuropaBio, Bretton Woods Committee, American Plastics Council, American Petroleum Institute, USA Engage, Grocery Manufacturers of America, Coalition for Vehicle Choice, Responsible Industry for Sound Environment, Indian Chemical Manufacturers Association.]
-Nowadays, with their global reach, a political coup isn't needed; corporations aren't answerable to governments. A big difference from 60 years ago, when governments could control them.
-Corporations are the new "high priests" and oligarchs of society, even though they hold no elected political seat.
-Some corruption was cleaned up because corporations like being identified by consumers as having "social responsibility", a tactic to the marketplace.
The overview of the documentary was that, according to the World Health Organization's checklist for Personality Mental Disorders, a corporation should be considered a psychopath.
-Callous unconcern for the feelings of others.
-Inability to maintain enduring relationships.
-Reckless disregard for the safety of others.
-Repeated lying and conning others for profit.
-Egotistical.
-Incapacity to experience guilt or empathy or remorse.
-Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors.
If the dominant institution of our time has been created in the image of a psychopath (run by psychopaths), who bears the responsibility for its actions? True, a building cannot have social/criminal responsibility. But, a corporation--run by people--can... and should.
However, in order to do so, you'd need a smarter population.
So, in this case, the monster has brainwashed the people (like a scene from "The Matrix" films).
Nonetheless, corporations are not "carved in stone"; they can be dismantled or boycotted. Mahatma Gandhi did it.
The first "monster" was a mistake. Perhaps a second visualization of Corporations will be successful... just as organizational models have progressed from "cog in a wheel" (Industrial Revolution era) to "a natural garden metaphor with life/work balance" (like Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People).
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