Category Archives: Corporations

Detroit Is Merely The Canary In The Coal Mine.

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It’s popular for conservatives to blame the bankruptcy of the City of Detroit on a history of Democratic leadership. Indeed, the conservative commentators seem to revel in the city’s troubles. And since Detroit has a high percentage of African-Americans, the problems also conveniently fit their racist narrative.

The wingnuts believe that this simply couldn’t happen to a government run by white conservatives.

Hmmm…What about California? Following a government led by Ronald Reagan and, more recently, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state was teetering on the abyss. But after a return to Democratic leadership, California is regaining economic health and running surpluses. The same can be said for Minnesota.

Detroit’s problems aren’t merely the fault of city leadership. The state of Michigan has failed to deliver the aid it promised. But the real problems are the result of national and international politics. As part of globalization, greedy corporations shipped Detroit’s manufacturing jobs out of state and out of country in order to avoid paying for employee health care and pensions. In addition, many of the city’s mostly white executives fled to the suburbs leaving the poor and the unemployed to pick up the tab for their excesses.

Given the many factors contributing to the city’s financial problems, it would have been virtually impossible for Detroit to overcome them by itself. Detroit didn’t create the problems on its own. It shouldn’t have to face them alone.

Moreover, Detroit may be just the first large city to declare bankruptcy. Other cities that were once home to large manufacturing plants are facing many of the same difficulties. And, depending on what happens in Detroit, they may follow its lead.

Sadly, the situation in Detroit reminds me of the aftermath of natural disasters. When the Midwest was devastated in the nineties by floods, many on the East Coast objected to paying for disaster relief. Many across the nation objected to paying to help New York City after 9/11. Many objected to the cost of rebuilding New Orleans after Katrina. And congressional representatives and senators from other states voted against funding to New Jersey and New York to pay for relief from Hurricane Sandy.

Far too many Americans lack compassion for their fellow Americans. Instead of looking for ways to help, they are more intent on affixing blame. They assume that they are so smart that such a disaster could never happen to them. Invariably, they are wrong.

While Congress Is On Recess, The Real Government Meets In Chicago.

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This weekend, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a meeting in Chicago. If you are still unfamiliar with ALEC, you are no doubt familiar with its legislation, such as Stand Your Ground laws, Arizona’s SB 1070 anti-immigration law, and the new wave of Voter ID laws designed to limit votes by minorities and the poor.

ALEC was created 40 years ago by a group of conservatives and large corporations. It was formed out of frustration with Congress; that it was too difficult to pass corporate-friendly laws at the national level. So corporations turned to state legislatures under the belief that they could more effectively change American politics state by state.

ALEC reached out to other large corporations for funding and to conservative legislators for influence and power. ALEC hired attorneys to draft “model” legislation that would benefit large corporations and the conservative cause. It charged conservative legislators a small membership fee and paid for them to attend ALEC meetings. At the meetings, ALEC handed members bills (up to 1,000/year) for them to sponsor during their legislative sessions, and many did so without even bothering to read the text.

For 38 years, all of this happened out of the sight of American citizens. No legislators talked about ALEC. No media covered the organization.

Then, in 2011, a few organizations began to shine a light on ALEC. The Center for Media and Democracy and The Nation created a project named ALEC Exposed. Moyers & Company broadcast the documentary United States of ALEC. And other groups got into the act, turning up the heat on sponsoring corporations. As a result, 49 corporations have been forced to disassociate themselves from ALEC and stop their funding.

ALEC is no longer operating below the radar and more people are discovering its impact on our democracy. As it gathered for its 40th anniversary session, thousands of union members, civil rights activists, environmentalists, and others have vowed to surround the auditorium and take to the streets to demonstrate.

The scrutiny has had an impact. Yet many of ALEC’s corporate sponsors are unphased. I have written to those with which I do business with no response. I’ve ended one long-standing business relationship as a result. I’m switching my insurance coverage from State Farm. And I plan to end relationships with any other ALEC sponsors. This is the only way we have to show our disdain for an organization that meets behind closed doors to shape laws that favor corporations over people.

Congressional lobbyists are bad. ALEC is worse. Both are undemocratic and un-American.

If you’d like to learn more and see a list of the corporations that sponsor ALEC, visit ALECWatch.org.

The Moral Cost Of Food.

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This past week, a couple of announcements stood out to me. One was that scientists were having a taste test of their “test tube” burger…meat that was grown from stem cells. Two was the announcement that the world is pretty much “maxed out” when it comes to meat and dairy production.

These announcements happened to coincide with a party I attended in which we were served beef that had a name. The host had grown the steer from a calf; feeding it and caring for it as part of the family.

All of this caused me to reflect on how far we have come with regard to food production since I left the family farm.

When I left the farm in the 1960’s, most farm animals had not yet become a commodity. Cattle were still allowed to graze in pastures. Milk was a by-product of breeding cattle to replace and enlarge the herd. Hogs were given room to roam. Sheep became self-propelled lawnmowers that also provided wool once a year. And poultry were allowed to roam the homestead before being locked up each night to protect them from predators.

How things have changed!

Today, calves are scarcely weaned from their mothers before being crammed into a feedlot with feed troughs fed by automated augers. Dairy cattle are confined in enormous barns and bred for one thing – milk production. They are given hormones to increase production. Their calves are now a by-product of milk to be confined and sold as veal. Hogs are born into confinement and live out their short lives with little room to even turn around. Chickens destined to produce eggs are crammed into tiny cages stacked as much as eight high to more efficiently use available space. They have no room to stand up, let alone turn around and those on the bottom are covered in the feces from those above. And chickens raised for meat are crammed into large rooms with thousands of others.

All of this is the result of animals being raised by corporations rather than people. And as awful as these conditions seem, they’re actually pleasant when compared to their conveyor-style slaughter.

Our treatment of animals should be disturbing to any person with a half a heart and respect for the beings with which we share this planet. We may never all become vegetarians or vegans, but that doesn’t mean we have to treat animals as a commodity…an unfeeling slab of meat.

Native Americans and other indigenous cultures ate meat, but they treated the victims of their hunts with respect. We would be wise to do the same. Failure to do so should weigh heavily on our minds and souls. The simple act of reducing our intake of meat and dairy each week would have a large impact on the sustainability of our planet. It would improve our overall health. And if enough people purchased locally-grown, organic foods, it would have an impact on factory farms.

But don’t count on the food industry to improve conditions on its own. Very few corporations have a conscience.

Families In Deep Doo-Doo.

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It seems that nearly every week, a new study is released that shows the growing income disparity in the United States. Recently, an Associated Press survey found that 80 percent of adults in the US face near-poverty and unemployment at some point in their lives. Another study by the International Human Rights Clinic at New York University’s School of Law found that 1 in 6 (50 million) Americans face food insecurity, including 17 million children.

Now, the medical journal Pediatrics has published a study measuring the psychological impact on mothers who are unable to afford diapers.

The study, “Diaper Need And Its Impact on Child Health,”  by a group of Yale researchers, found that 30 percent of mothers have struggled to pay for diapers and more than 8 percent of low-income mothers reuse soiled diapers! Not surprisingly, the researchers concluded that the lack of clean diapers “seriously affects maternal stress, child health, and child development.”

So, in the richest nation on Earth, a large percentage of our people can’t tend to the needs of either end of a baby!

We have millions who can’t afford the most basic necessities despite working full-time jobs. We have tens of thousands of homeless – many of them families and veterans. And, instead of passing laws to raise the minimum wage; instead of eliminating tax loopholes that encourage companies to ship manufacturing jobs overseas; instead of passing bills to help create jobs here at home; House Teapublicans plan to cut $40 billion from our food stamp programs over the next 10 years.

It will be difficult since the House has only 9 scheduled work days between now and the end of September, but I’m certain they’ll find a way.

Growth Of The “Moocher” Class.

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During the 2012 presidential election, Mitt Romney was famously caught on camera talking about the 47 percent he claimed pay no taxes. That led to the conservative media referring to the 47 percent as the  “moocher” class; those people whose votes could be bought with promises of free “stuff,” such as food stamps, unemployment insurance and access to healthcare.

According to a new survey exclusive to The Associated Press, Romney had the numbers wrong. The survey shows that 80 percent of adults in the US face near-poverty and unemployment at some point in their lives. You read that correctly…80 percent!

In addition, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 22 percent of Americans have been significantly affected by the sequester budget cuts. And those who earn less than $30,000 per year have been hardest hit. Moreover, 1 in 6 (50 million) Americans face food insecurity, including 17 million children.

The vast majority of these people work full-time jobs; some work two jobs or more and still can’t make ends meet. Yet conservatives call these people “moochers” and “takers.” Fox News Channel and conservative radio hosts vilify and ridicule the working poor. Instead of placing the blame where it belongs…on greedy corporations and an economy that no longer offers the majority of Americans an opportunity to realize the American Dream…Congressional Teapublicans blame the problem on labor unions, pensions, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They have voted to cut food stamps and unemployment insurance benefits. They have voted 39 times to repeal Obamacare, denying access to healthcare for more than 50 million poor Americans. And, instead of voting to fund projects that would rebuild our infrastructure and create good-paying jobs, they vote to cut taxes for the wealthy.

In the two and a half years since regaining control of the House by promising to focus on jobs, Teapublicans continue to push for budget cuts and to place obstacles in the way of our economic recovery.

As a result of their indifference to the plight of ordinary Americans, our economy continues its slow recovery. We continue to see the loss of good-paying jobs to other countries. We continue to see the loss of pensions and income security for the elderly. And we continue to see a widening gap between the rich and the poor.

Teapublicans are right to talk about the “givers” and “takers” in our society. But they have things backwards. The “givers” are the working people who pay a disproportionate share of their income to taxes, including payroll deductions and sales taxes. And the “takers” are the very wealthy and large corporations who benefit from corporate welfare and record profits.

Egypt’s Morsi = America’s GOP

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When asked to explain the removal of President Mohamed Morsi, Egyptian leaders said that Morsi had offered no plan; no vision to solve the nation’s problems. Instead, he focused on consolidating the power of the Muslim Brotherhood and instituting Sharia law.

In many ways, his actions paralleled those of the GOP in the US.

Like Egypt, we have millions of unemployed. We have tens of thousands of recent college graduates with no jobs; not even any prospects of jobs. We have millions who, despite working full-time jobs, live in poverty. Our infrastructure is crumbling around us.

So how are Congressional Republicans dealing with these problems?

Like the Muslim Brotherhood, they are focused on consolidating power. In Republican-controlled states, they are gerrymandering Congressional districts to ensure their re-election. They are pushing through laws to limit the voting rights of minorities. And they are instituting their own form of repressive, antiquated laws to control women’s bodies; to control who may marry; to pick economic winners and losers.

The GOP has offered no legislation to address our growing number of problems. No jobs bills. No plan to rebuild infrastructure. No plan to help workers earn a living wage. No plan to break up our growing number of monopolies. No plan to deal with climate change. No plan to control healthcare costs. No plan to take the corruption out of politics.

The GOP’s only vision is to obstruct the plans of President Obama. If anything, that makes them worse than Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.

Abolish The IRS?

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Tea Party favorite, Sen. Rand Paul, is featured in a TV commercial calling for viewers to sign a petition to abolish the IRS. Paul and his fellow Tea Party parasites are capitalizing on what they falsely call an unconstitutional attack on conservatives to get what they really want…a flat tax.

The flat tax is a horrible idea that has long been pushed by the wealthy and conservatives. It doesn’t sound bad; you just total up the income you received for the year and pay a flat percentage of that income. No accountants or tax preparers needed. But since everyone would pay the same percentage, the flat tax would be a huge victory for the wealthy and an unprecedented attack on the poor.

The very conservative Heritage Foundation recommends that the tax rate be set at 28 percent. It would eliminate payroll taxes, estate taxes, excise taxes and taxes on savings. It would give a modest tax credit to the poor. The only other tax deductions would be for higher education, gifts and charitable deductions.

Of course, the poor and modest income households don’t make enough to have savings. So eliminating a tax on savings only benefits the wealthy. Likewise, only the wealthy would benefit from eliminating estate taxes. The wealthy would certainly benefit the most from the charitable deductions. And since the top marginal tax rate is now 39.6 percent, the flat tax would give those making $400,000 and up a tax cut of 11.6 percent!

The real effect of the flat tax proposal would be to dramatically cut taxes for the wealthy and raise taxes on those who can least afford it.

The flat tax is just another Trojan horse concocted by conservatives to benefit their wealthy masters. It would move even more of the tax burden onto the middle class and make the plight of the poor utterly hopeless. A better idea is to rid our current tax code of the deductions, tax shelters and subsidies created by conservative politicians to help their campaign contributors avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

A flat tax will simply help them avoid taxes altogether.

Since no one actually likes paying taxes, the IRS has few friends. Yet, without the IRS, who would track down the thousands of tax cheats? With no enforcement, thousands more would be encouraged to avoid paying taxes. And, though a flat tax may sound like a good idea, if it ever happens, the American dream will become a nightmare for all but a very few.

What’s Wrong With The US? Connect The Dots.

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It’s probably self-evident, but our government is no longer of the people, by the people and for the people. A more accurate description would be of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations.

But how did we get here? How have a few powerful multinationals and one percent of the population usurped power from the vast majority of the people? In order to fully understand this, all you need to do is connect the dots.

  • We have allowed a few large corporations to create virtual monopolies, often with the help of government subsidies. These corporations buy out, squeeze out and drive out small businesses.
  • The CEOs of these corporations sit on each others’ Boards and approve each others’ compensations.
  • A portion of CEO compensation is based on the companies’ productivity and share price. That means the CEOs strive to cut costs (employee benefits and salaries) while increasing the price of products and services.
  • Once corporations achieve maximum productivity and profit with US employees, they are encouraged to offshore jobs in order to further reduce labor costs and employee benefits.
  • As corporations expand around the world, it becomes easier to stash profits offshore in order to reduce their tax burden and further increase profits.
  • These increased profits and compensation allow corporations to “invest” millions in the political campaigns of those who will support corporate interests.
  • The campaign contributions by corporations and corporate leaders leads to a massive increase in the cost of running for office, driving away those who might represent ordinary working people.
  • Corporate-financed Political Action Groups and associations, such as the US Chamber of Commerce spend additional millions to support corporate-friendly candidates.
  • Once the corporate-friendly candidates are sworn into office, they pass legislation that benefits their contributors.
  • Corporations and industries finance large lobbying efforts to further impact legislation resulting in large government contracts and subsidies.
  • Eventually, the corporate-friendly politicians nominate and approve judicial appointments that make the courts more friendly to corporate interests (see Citizens United v FEC, Buckley v Valeo and Bowman v Monsanto).
  • Politicians, with help from the courts (see Shelby County v Holder), undermine the voting rights of minorities and others who oppose them. At the same time, they wage war against the poor by cutting education, unemployment benefits and food stamps. They allow corporations to steal their savings, even their homes without repercussions.

We can take back our government, but it won’t be easy. It starts with election finance reform that takes the massive amounts of money out of political campaigns. It ends with politicians who, in the interests of ordinary people, are willing to break up “too big to fail” corporations as President Theodore Roosevelt once did.

What Egypt Reveals About US Foreign Policy.

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In one of the most ironic foreign policy twists of all time, Egyptian journalists are reporting that a majority of Egyptians now link the US with the Muslim Brotherhood and deposed President Mohamed Morsi.

No, it’s not because President Obama is the socialist Muslim Teapublicans think him to be. The reality is much less interesting. It stems from our undying belief in democracy, and the fact that Americans equate democracy with freedom. But, as we’re learning, democracy does not always lead to freedom, and it doesn’t always represent the will of the people.

Egypt is a great case in point.

When Morsi was elected president, it had less to do with his vision for the future of Egypt than the fact that his Freedom and Justice Party representing the Muslim Brotherhood was more organized and more powerful than the opposition parties. After all, political parties had not previously played a large role in Egyptian government because Egypt had never before held democratic elections. Nevertheless, the US felt it necessary to embrace Morsi after he won election.

Once Morsi gained power, he ignored the economic issues of poverty and joblessness that led to the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. Instead, Morsi focused on consolidating power in order to ensure that Freedom and Justice Party candidates could not be defeated in future elections. He also took steps to replace the current legal system with Islamic law.

To that end, Morsi reinstated the Islamist-dominated parliament that was disbanded by the Supreme Constitutional Court. He then ordered the return of legislators elected a year earlier, a majority of whom are members of his own party or other Islamist groups. Morsi objected to a constitutional provision that would limit his presidential power and announced that any constitutional amendments restricting the president’s powers would be annulled. And late last year, he issued a declaration purporting to protect the work of the assembly convened to draft a new constitution from judicial interference. But, in effect, that declaration immunized his actions from any legal challenge.

By this time, most Egyptians had had enough. But the Obama administration, like so many of the administrations before it, felt it had little choice but to continue to support a democratically-elected president. So we continued to provide billions of military aid to Egypt.

Now the US is left in a very awkward position.

US law dictates that we cut off military aid to any nation that removes a democratically-elected leader through a military coup. Yet one can easily argue that the Egyptian military was directed by the will of the people. And if we do cut off military aid, we risk alienating the military leaders, the most powerful political force in Egypt. Furthermore, it would lend more credence to the notion that we support the Muslim Brotherhood over the will of the people.

We likely wouldn’t be in this dilemma if our foreign policy put more emphasis on humanitarian aid versus military aid. For decades, we have continued Cold War policies of providing weapons to nations (including those run by brutal dictators) that support our corporate…er…national interests. At the same time, we have tended to ignore the health and welfare of ordinary people.

The resulting void is too often filled by terrorists and militant organizations.

Such organizations have endeared themselves to ordinary citizens by building schools, mosques, water treatment plants, medical facilities and other things that directly benefit a majority of the people. That helps them more easily recruit members and enables them to draw a stark contrast with the US. And when these nations inevitably erupt in political turmoil, our own weapons are often turned against us.

Why do we continue such bone-headed foreign policies? In a word, money. Selling weapons to governments that support our multinational corporations is very profitable for our military-industrial complex. Building infrastructure and creating jobs…not so much. Moreover, economic disparity and poverty provide a ready source of cheap labor for multinational corporations in search of places to send our manufacturing jobs.

What Happened To Creativity?

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After the conclusion of the past TV season and viewing the latest sample of so-called blockbuster (emphasis on bust) movies, I must conclude that creativity in the US is either dead or on life support.

As a former advertising creative director, for the first time since the early 1960’s, I ignore most of the commercials. It seems that most US commercials are bland compared to their international counterparts. It’s not for lack of budget. Large US advertisers are literally throwing money at production and getting little in return. That’s because the ideas are mostly formulaic and stunted by research.

Much of the TV programming is worse than the advertising. Except for HBO, “Reality” TV has replaced comedy and drama. We have Survivor, Big Brother, Storage Wars, Swamp People, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, The Apprentice, The Amazing Race…ad nauseum. Unfortunately, there appears to be no end in sight for the dumbing down of American TV (hard to imagine it could get worse that the vast wasteland of the 60’s and 70’s). Because reality TV is cheap to produce, some industry insiders are predicting the end of scripted television.

Our movies are no better. Hollywood has abandoned stories in favor of bombastic production. Most of the movies are devoted to disasters of one kind of another. Those that aren’t, are remakes of old classics. The reason?  Lynda Obst, in her book Sleepless in Hollywood, argues that the movie industry is driven by foreign demand. She says that foreign movie sales now account for 80 percent of all movie income; that movies with complex stories relying on dialogue simply don’t draw movie audiences in Europe and Asia. As a result, American movie-goers are forced to suffer through movies that are long on action and short on story. Of course, that fits into the video game psyche of American youth.

To my mind, these industries are only indicators of a distressing lack of creativity throughout the US. More and more, we’re falling behind other nations when it comes to creativity and invention. Now that the hedonistic yuppies of the 80’s are running our corporations, we’re good at making money. But not much else.

Hedge fun managers are creative in finding new ways to rip off unsuspecting investors. Mortgage lenders are creative in finding ways to foreclose on homes. Multinational corporations are creative in avoiding taxes, increasing productivity while cutting costs, and socializing their financial losses.

I believe the US won’t reclaim its leadership role until we, once again, value products, design and people over profits; creativity over productivity; customer service over sales; and craftsmanship over cost-cutting.

Until then, we can watch our nation’s demise on our screens in 3D and HD.