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Amino Abdullahi Rebecca McCarthy English 102 December 02, 2012

The anguish caused by the corporation towards the Government

Whether one is poor or rich, government or corporate employee, it was not long ago when the American presidential election was on every news channel one turns on. Whether the news was about healthcare, unemployment, the economy or foreign policy; it captivated our attention. However, while watching those advertisements where candidates criticized each other, one would wonder who should accept the responsibility . The government failed to lead and its citizens are facing a high rate of unemployment. Not to mention that the obesity and unhealthy food this country is producing, as well as the drug and medicine that is over priced, are

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unacceptable. Does this mean American people fail to speak out clearly regardless of their long lines waiting to vote? Are the corporations are ruining this country? Whichever side one looks at, the future is shallow. Perhaps one needs to understand that the government has been over powered and it is not the dominate force it once was. The issue is beyond ones thought and imagination. Because corporations grew large in the past decade, they became more powerful .Thus, corporations earn the right to be called themselves big brother whereas the government becomes little brother alone with citizens of United States.

Lets exam the characteristics of big Brother as well as the corresponding story of corporations power.The book 1984 perfectly illustrates the characteristics of Big brother. Both the book and the author are highly credible. The author survived the War World II in England and experienced the dreadful Nazi scheme.The book emphasized how the culture or system is more powerful than an individual and it will take more than one person or two to defeat the system. Because the this book illustrates how the party persuade society to retain the power and more importantly encouraged them to join and fight for the party for the command good; It has direct relation to my argument of corporations doing the same. While the corporations create jobs to assist both government and the society, they receive the great benefits and dictate many aspect of how our society should live. The author of the flowing book seem to agree. The main character in this book titled Corporate Control, Corporate Power: A Twentieth Century Fund Study is very informative. The book explains how large corporations have negative externality to impact on society.An external is often unforeseen or unintended,accompanying a process. The book offered some good example of how corporations have negative externality in

Abdullahi 3 correlation with their size. The author cited The large corporation may also contribute more directly to negative externalities as a result of its size, geographic dispersion, and mobility, which give it greater freedom to select technologies and business strategies that add to its internal efficiency but that may involve an unfavorable trade-off between costs and benefits to society(Herman, 3). The above author statement unfortunately shows, that corporations do not care about the welfare of the society but indeed only profit. However, the author of the book fail to find anywhere where government step in to protect the common good of the society. Nevertheless, The author pointed out and provided an example how corporations may have a financial power to influence both the society and the government. Financial power is shown to be real, but exercised as a constraint and an ideological influence rather than by direct control over the large corporations(Herman, 15). However, when one exams the advantages corporations have in this country, one will be stunned. For example, most of our middle class have to pay taxes until they reach a certain amount of income for the year; however corporations who make millions of dollar a year may avoid paying as much as a dollar. Indeed, corporations may claim tax benefits they do not qualify for. Christopher Helman is an author that is well traveled and reported about many different issues related to corporations such as Exxon, Chevron, Chesapeake and Michael Dell. He also reported from Saudi Arabia regarding nuclear waste dumps and deepwater drilling rigs. In his article titled, What the Top U.S Companies Pay in Taxes, He explains how corporations avoid paying taxes in this country. In fact he explains how corporations claim tax benefits they may not be eligible for. The author stated Here's something to raise your hackles: Some of the world's biggest, most profitable corporations enjoy a far lower tax rate than you do--that is, if they pay taxes at all(Helman, 1). This illustrates how corporations dont generate tax dollars to the American economy. Helman further explained how corporations hurt the economy when it comes to tax income. Last year the conglomerate

Abdullahi 4 generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion. (Helman, para. 8). One would wonder how an American working family or individual would pay income tax but American corporate will receive $1.1 billion. The answer may not be straightforward, but after long hours of research, the only obvious answer is power dominated by the corporations. Lets look at article "Sovereignty." by Philpott, Dan.This Article defines sovereignty (the status, dominion, power, or authority of a sovereign) and explains as well as exams my different theory about Sovereignty. It compares and contrasts the different type of authorities and powers. The audiences of this article are those who are within authorities The author of this article Philpott stated, It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no pure legal explanation can be provided.(Philpott, 1). Clearly our government fails to provide explains for some of the policy that benefits only the corporate such as tax breaks and this is a classic example. In another sentence the author stated For centuries past, the idea that a state could be sovereign was always connected to its ability to guarantee the best interests of its own citizens(Philpott, 1).

Most people outside of United States may view the U.S. as a mostly democratic country. Although United States may be very democratic country where people exercise their freedom, corporations have great influence on the government. As a result, government are more aligned with corporations and perhaps do not enforce the law when it comes to regulations. Herman the author of the book Corporate Control, Corporate Power: A Twentieth Century Fund Study seems to agree;More surprising and more controversial its role as a regulator is found to be overrated, at least as regards scope and impact on business decision making(Herman 15). Obviously, corporations are blended in our government and the government position appears to

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show favoritism toward the big corporations. Once more Herman cited,In the giant corporation the number of actions over which power can be exercised is great and the number of potential influences on those actions is also very large(Herman 18). Undoubtedly, this is how corporations control this country and sadly most American people are not aware of the danger and the threat of corporate control in the U.S. government. For instance , there are times where government has tried to stop corporations and nevertheless, was unsuccessful. Consider the article titled Elks Hopeful about Sale which the main characters are the Wal-Mart and city government of Tacoma. Wal-Mart wanted to develop a site in order to open a Walmart store locally. However, City of Tacoma tried to block and it was unsuccessful. Both the Wal-Mart and the City of Tacoma tried to show they are fighting for the benefit of the society. More so, WalMart directed it here to create jobs for locals. The author Cooper stated the company has spent thousands of dollars on the site including earnest money thats typically spent to tie up the property while due diligence is conducted (Cooper, para. 5). Overall, this article indicated, the fight between governments and corporations where the government put up a hard fight but the corporations win the fight at the end. This is unfortunate, it has to happen in a country as beautiful and as prosperous as United States. Indeed, it is unfair to anyone other than corporations because it seems everything is being run by the corporations. Corporations also dictate which direction the country should head into with large number of lobbyist that harass American policy makers. The general knowledge is that congress writes the bills and vote for it in order to be signed by the president of United States. Thus, according to U.S.Constitution, voting is consider as the most important rights. But what happens when one does not have the right to vote or is afraid of voting for what is right? Policy make hustle and harassment from the

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corporations. Michelle Singer is a writer and reporter that wrote many articles for the CBS News. In her article titled Under the Influence she cited we had a good friend from Michigan, Nick Smith, and they threatened to work against his son who wanted to run for his seat when he retired he recalls (Singer, 1). Most American people do not see these type of harassment and they think congress writes the bills and passes them. Here is another example where corporations harassed the citizens in other to change their votes. Singer cited I saw a woman, a member of the house, a lady, crying when they came around her, trying to get her to change her votes. It was ugly (Singer, 1). One would not have the imagination to think congress and the house of representatives are forced to vote by the corporations but this is a clear example of how the process works. Also, because corporations do their job effectively so their crime or their unethical behavior could go unnoticed. Singer once more pointed out in the same article "The pharmaceutical lobbyists wrote the bill," says Jones. "The bill was over 1,000 pages. And it got to the members of the House that morning, and we voted for it at about 3 a.m. in the morning," remembers Jones. ( Singer, page. 1). Perhaps one would ask why congress would be voting for a bill at 3 am in the morning? The answer is because corporations do not want American people witnessing the corporate control on policy makers. Singer illustrated this on his article once more I think a lot of the shenanigans that were going on that night, they didn't want on national television in prime time ( Singer, page. 1). Clearly corporations have been very successful hiding their corruptions, but when would American people realize to bail out their government and the policy makers to end the dominance and the power of the corporations?

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Lastly, corporations do not care about anything in this country unless it is generating income for them and their bottom line is to make profit even if it will be harmful. The author of the article titled Use of potentially harmful chemicals kept secret under law reported,manufacturers have reported in mandatory notices to the government that many pose a "substantial risk" to public health or the environment. In March, for example, more than half of the 65 "substantial risk" reports filed with the Environmental Protection Agency involved secret chemicals(Layton, Paragraph. 8). This shows how corporations are so careless about American people as well as the environment. More importantly, they will take any opportunity to create the chance to make that profit even if it is lawful or ethically wrong.The authors of the article Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion in Secret Loans Keoun and Kuntz stated, By 2008, the housing markets collapse forced those companies to take more than six times as much, $669 billion, in emergency loans from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The loans dwarfed the $160 billion in public bailouts the top 10 got from the U.S. Treasury, yet until now the full amounts have remained secret (Keoun and Kuntz, Paragraph. 3). This maybe just an examples, nethertheless, it demonstrate how corporate banks poison the economy and pushes the government into a deep

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holes and above all, leads the American people to struggle in life.
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So how could American citizens and their government to stand up to Big brother Corporations to find the fairness and the life balance. One needs to understand how American citizen and their governments conceded the power to the big corporations. Lets quickly look at the article of Max Webers Idea of: Power, Domination,
Legitimation, and Authority. where the author emphasize and explains different authorities such

as Charismatic Authority, Traditional Authority, Legal or Rational Authority and so on. The author explained the following power, A group may exercise power by using economic and physical force to dominate a territory. This may lead to establishing rules or legal order, fairly few in number and not elaborate in the beginning. As control is maintained, there is a tendency for a more systematic and all encompassing set of laws and regulations to be established(Gerth and Mills, 65). Evidently, corporations have used the above power to manipulate both the government and the citizens, because both the government and the citizens let it happen. Therefore, the citizens need to speak up and stand up to assist the government against big corporations rather than rolling over. Citizens need to elect the right people that will represent them. Furthermore, citizens need to educate themselves about big corporation so they can aid their government. Below, one would find variety of links and video that are very educational as well as informative.

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Watch This corporation Video Link

http://carnegie.org/programs/international-peace-and-security/

http://corporationsarenotpeople.com/

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/features/do-big-corporations-control-america/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/weekinreview/24kirkpatrick.html

http://www.harvardlawreview.org/issues/124/november10/Comment_7318.php

In conclusion, It clear that corporations have dictated the direction of this country and are moving and influenced the policy makers while harassing them to earn their votes. Although corporations create job opportunities, in many instances they hurt the government more than they help. Since these big corporations have money power, they tend to have significant economic and social impact. As result our county may be corrupted by the corporations who are poisoning the country.

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Work citations:

Orwell, George. 1984. Ed. Erich Fromm. New York: Harcourt, 1949. Print.
Herman, Edward S. Corporate Control, Corporate Power: A Twentieth Century Fund Study illustrated: London. 1982. Print. Cooper, Kathleen.Elks Hopeful about Sale. TheNews Tribune [Tacoma] 03 09 2011, Business. Web. 02 Nov. 2012. Gingrich, Paul. Max Weber's Idea Of: Power, Domination, Legitimation, and Authority. Sociology 250 - Notes on Max Weber. University of Regina, Last edited 10 October 7 1999. Web.

Singer, Michelle Under the InfluenceCBS News [DC] 01 04 2007, politics. Web. Nov 13 2012. Layton, Lyndsey Use of potentially harmful chemicals kept secret under law The Washington Post [DC] 04 01 2010, Politics. Web. Nov 13 2012. Keoun, Bradley and Kuntz, Phil Wall Street aristocracy got $1.2 trillion in secret loans Bongor Daily News[Bongor] 23 08 2011, Business. Web. Nov 13 2012. Helman, Christopher What the Top U.S. Companies Pay In Taxes Forbes [Taxes] 13 04 2011, Business.Web. Nov 13 2012.

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