Corporations and Their Effect on the World - Essay Example

Your Corporations and their effect on the world Times change, as well as change governments and forms of government. The few recent centuries have not, however, changed one thing – the power of corporations, and wealth they represent. Society and social views do change with time, but they are greatly influenced by the wealth of the rich. Corporations, using their great financial resources, have the ability to secretly rule over people’s minds from behind the stages of media and politics. Democracy and capitalism have united for creating a system where the rich rule. Money solves any issues, dictates political decisions, and shapes minds of the new generations. Democracy, in its turn, is an ideal medium for the development and growth of businesses and corporations. Democracy and capitalism, in this sense, are the systems that consciously and lawfully encourage and allow so-called “free market” and “market competition” where the strongest wins. The strongest now means the richest. Those, who have got their influential and powerful positions in the global marketplace, will never let anyone new in. They play in democracy and in competition. They are more likely to agree on each one’s market share, than to share the market with one more pretender to wealth. As for the overall concept of democracy, it is the system which is supposed to provide each citizen with an opportunity to influence the politics of the country and take part in the legislative practice of the state. On practice, however, we have a system which imposes the will of the elite to the general public, making people think the way they are supposed to think. With the help of the media the strong of the world can influence people’s thinking and opinions. As a result, we get a nation that is taught to believe in its government and not to question the government’s decisions. According to the research conducted by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (Huang and Stone), nowadays the largest income concentrates in hands of 0.1% of income receivers. Inequality between high- and middle-income Americans has been rising since 1990. The tax returns data of 1917-2004 shows a U-shaped trend in the percentage of income received by the top 10% of income recipients (Burtless and Haskins 497). In 2005 the rich got 18% of the nation’s income (Colson). Consequently, the rates of economic and, as a result, political inequality reinforce each other and compromise democracy (Jencks). Furthermore, the richest Americans not only avoid high taxation, but enjoy an enormous political influence in addition. Legislators favor the wealthiest since they support the politicians’ election campaigns. That is why the most prosperous citizens are not taxed more than they are. Interest groups manipulate government decisions influencing the amount of time and energy legislators devote to a particular issue. In addition to communicating with legislators directly, rich people have an ability to influence the thinking of the entire nation by means of media tools. In 1986, for example, legislation was going to simplify taxation, and lower taxes on the poor, while increase them for the rich. However, the legislation didn’t pass because powerful outside interests favored such a decision. To make the situation worse, labor unions and cross-class membership organizations are declining while interest groups expanding. In 2002 the poverty rate among the elderly was 50% before their receiving government payments. Recent immigrants earn 34% less than citizens. More than a half of low-income voters does not vote. The global elite plays free market and competition. At the same time, it is now impossible for a new company to gain the power equal to that of the existing corporations. They simply won’t let a new one reach the same greatness, and they have plenty of tools for keeping and maintaining their current status. Among them are government campaign contributions, lobbying, and captured regulatory agencies (Triebwasser). In general, through campaign contributions corporations have much more opportunities to access and influence government officials than an average citizen. Advisory committees that are very often formed for government agencies are made up of people, the majority of whom have some relation to the involved industry, and even have interest in certain government decision’s being taken. So, these people influence the officials through providing one-sided information that is sure to lead to the needed conclusion. Another example is court cases. Corporations have more resources than government for winning a case. Furthermore, their lawyers often don’t aim at winning a case, but at just delaying a potential action of the government, if that is what the company needs. Justice or social welfare is not something the system cares about. The high-paid and well-trained lawyers of corporations win the majority of cases simply because neither government nor small business can afford legal service of the same level. In addition, their qualifications allow these people deliver corporations the service of finding solutions to ‘bend’ the law. Globalization and internationalization the market is undergoing these days are, again, great slogans for the elite to make people think these trends will positively influence their life. What we will get in reality is a global society that has no cultural identity. Globalization is the tool for making all the people alike, for destroying national identities of the people, and erasing the cultural boundaries between the nations. The reason is simple – it is much easier to rule and control a population if this population consists of identical minds. Diverse social groups, and independent thinking that questions decisions and events are more difficult to manage than a united by common thinking large group. Therefore, the beautiful words about one united global society are a well thought over campaign for marketing the goal of the elite. They don’t want people to think. They want people to obey. We are never told all the truth. We, average people, are to just accept what we are given. CIA, Freemasons, Skull & Bones, and many other secret organizations are formed and rule from behind our backs. No one ever admits he or she is a member of one of these organizations. Kris Millegan cites The Realist (Summer, 1991), for example, stating that “The CIA is a secret organization. No one ever admits to being a member. The truth is that Bush has been a top CIA official since before the 1961 invasion of Cuba”. So, such information exists, and it is available to the public. The problem, however, is that the majority of the society either doesn’t know about it, or doesn’t question the system – that’s exactly what the system teaches us. Systems totally opposite to democracy and capitalism are Marxism and communism. Communism, though is not an ideal system either, did not allow market competition – it was a command economy. The positive thing about it was the fact that wealth was not concentrated in hands of a small group of the elite. Under such circumstances it was simply impossible to move the nation’s wealth in one hands. One of the main concepts of communism was redistribution of wealth amongst the society – no competition, no free market, no extremely rich people. Though there did exist the elite (political one), the nation knew it in face. Some other positive aspects of communism were free education and free healthcare for everyone. Would it be possible in modern economy of the US? – No. Free education and free healthcare are not something corporations are interested in – they don’t want to loose such a great share of profit. They do not care that a great number of people cannot afford buying their medication, but the current system is favorable for the pharmaceutical giants. In general, this can be related to any industry. The antimonopoly legislation just doesn’t work in this ‘free market’ where a few leaders of great corporations can gather together to decide whom to let into the market, who should go, and who gets what. Remember how Google was thinking about purchasing Yahoo. If they did, Google would become a monopolist. So, they decided to leave everything as it is in order to have competition. However, everyone knows who the leader is. The current financial crisis has showed that, as Kris Brennan outlines, “the profits were in effect privatized to those who created the crisis through excessive rewards, and the losses are now being socialized to taxpayers” (Brennan 2). Market capitalism has, in such a way, failed. Though a better system has not been invented, we shouldn’t forget how faulty the current one is. There even exists an opinion that everything that takes place now was planned hundreds of years ago with the purpose of gradual uniting the whole world into one society ruled by a group of selected people. Well, analyzing what is going on now the idea seems quite realistic. Propaganda, marketing, and other techniques used by corporations for strengthening their positions, have showed to be very effective tools for manipulating public opinions, governments, and societies. They have created a society of consumers in the developed countries, and a society of slaves, who work nearly for food, in the third world countries. This all, however, cannot be called otherwise than exploitation. Exploitation of the whole world for the good and the profit of a small group of people. References Brennan, Daniel. “Global Prosperity at Risk. The Current Crisis and the Responsible Way Forward.” Draft. Cauxroundtable.org. Web. 10 Dec. 2009. Burtless, Gary and Ron Haskins. “Inequality, Economic Mobility, and Social Policy”. Understanding America : The Anatomy of an Exceptional Nation. Ed. Peter Schuck, James Q. Wilson. New York: Public Affairs. 2008. Print. 495-538. Colson, Nicole. “Robbing the poor to give to the filthy rich”. SocialistWorker.org 657 Jan.11, 2008. Web. 10 Dec. 2009. Huang, Chye-Ching and Chad Stone. “Average Income in 2006 up $60,000 for Top 1 Percent of Households, Just $430 for Bottom 90 Percent: Income Concentration at Highest Level Since 1928, New Analysis Shows”. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Oct. 22, 2008. Web. 10 Dec. 2009. Jencks, Christopher. “Our Unequal Democracy. Economic and political inequality reinforce each other and compromise democracy”. The American Prospect magazine. June 2004. Web. 10 Dec. 2009. Millegan, Kris. “George Bush, Skull and Bones, and the JFK Assassination "The Order of Skull and Bones". Little Red Hen. 1996. Web. 10 Dec. 2009. Triebwasser, Marc. “How Corporations Influence the Government.” Polisci.ccsu.edu. 1998. Web. Dec 12, 2009. Read More