Corporate Fields Forever was written in April 2007. It establishes what a corporation is, and how corporations, and those who run them, are treated differently from the rest of us. This was before the Citizens United decision in 2010 which solidified corporate person-hood and bestowed upon them the same inalienable rights as humans are guaranteed in the Constitution of the Unites States of America. What can be added to that discussion other than "a corporation with limited to no legal liability can do what it pleases collectively with no real ramifications?" This is one of the main reasons so many too to the streets around the world in the Occupy Wall Street protest starting on September 17, 2011. On this, the eve of the third anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, it is fitting to remember why we hit the streets.
Cliff Potts
September 16, 2014
Cliff Potts
September 16, 2014
Corporate Fields Forever
Before we delve into this
discussion, we need a working definition of corporation.
A corporation is an artificial person created to negate the effects of liability and responsibility.
Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson
Adam Smith, observed in 1776, in the Wealth of Nations, that a corporation
could become so large that it could influence government, minimize competition,
and minimize its own social responsibility (He referred to these as factions;
we would call them special interest groups -- The Wealth of Nations.[1])
Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Horatio G. Spafford
on March 17, 1814, wrote, “Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand
on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw
their gains.”[2]
Corporations have little or no loyalty to the needs
of the nation in which they operate. Individuals within the corporation may be
patriotic individuals, but by in large the corporation is not.
The idea that the corporation is a patriotic entity
is relatively new as part of the myth of modern America . As Smith observed, “It is
not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we can
expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. (Book 1,
Chapter 2),”[3]
and, “"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment
and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or
in some contrivance to raise prices." (Book 1, Chapter 10).”[4]
This is a far more realistic light than what has been promoted since the 1980s.
The collapse of Enron is an example of both Jefferson
and Smith’s observations of the true nature of corporations. They exist to make
money.
In theory corporations answer to the stockholders. The
risk of ownership entitles these stockholders to high rewards for their enterprise.
However, as seen in the collapse of the Dot Coms and Enron, both flowering
examples of the New Economy, corporations have the means to manipulate the
information which is presented to the owners. Moreover the owners, having hired
the corporations to build wealth for them, trust (almost blindly) the actions
taken by the corporations. Within the ranks of ownership, there are also
corporate owners who, through the mass investment, hold disproportionate sway
in the guidance of the corporation. Corporations are not democratic
institutions; rather than one vote per person it is one vote per share of stock
owned.
As long as the corporations can justify their actions
to the owners in such a way as to look good on a Profit and Loss Statement, the
corporations can continue to manipulate the corporate resources to benefit
themselves at the expense of the stockholders, employees, suppliers, and
creditors. Corporations are not ignorant and the rewards are directly linked to
the valuation of the stock.
Since the 1980s there has been less and less governmental
oversight of corporations in the United States . Into their capable
hands we have entrusted the welfare of the nation, yet the corporations have
little to no concern for the nation in which they operate.
The ability to shift the risk away from the corporation
negates the argument that they are entitled to the vast wealth due to some
overwhelming risk. That risk, which does exist, is shifted down through the
stockholders to society at large. The corporations are seldom held accountable
for the losses inflicted upon the majority of the population.
In his letter to Colonel Charles Yancy on January 6,
1816, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in
a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”[5]
Ignorance of how corporations operate, and of their
motives, and loyalties, is not going to deliver the population to the
preservation of freedom and liberty. Moreover, it is in the best interest of
the corporation to keep the owners and the population in general ignorant, and
therefore diminish their exercise of their individual liberty (which might be divestiture
from a poorly run corporation), and therefore diminish their economic freedom.
Enron
Enron, which started out in 1931 as Northern Natural
Gas Company, became the darling of Wall Street, and Fortune Magazine 1996 to 2001. Enron reported inflated and or
nonexistent assets, and hid substantial debts and losses in “offshore” accounts
to remove them from the books.
To date it is still not clear as to how much damage
has been done by the bankruptcy of Enron. Both Kenneth Lay (the former Chairman
of the Board and Chief Executive Officer), and Jeffery Skilling (former Chief
Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer) were convicted on May 25, 2006
of various counts emerging from the collapse of Enron.
On June 15, 2002 Arthur Andersen was convicted of
obstruction of justice for shredding
Enron’s documentation. That conviction was overturned on May 31, 2005,
by the Supreme Court of the United
States due to “flaws in the jury
instructions.”
Thousands of Enron employees and investors lost
everything they invested. While not initially covered, there are reports
stating that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is attempting to cover
some, and possibly all, of this loss.
Enron, who had employed up to 21,000 people in 2000,
now (renamed Enron Creditors Recovery Corporation)
employs as few as 300 people. It is a story of “from rags to riches to rags
again.” Kenny Lay, as he was known by his friend George W. Bush, died on July
5, 2006, and his conviction was vacated on October 17, 2006.[6]
The rules of society, not specifically the law, must
preserve the integrity of the individual when they suffer loss as a direct
result of the self-serving decisions of the corporations. Within that, society
needs to mitigate the extent to which such larceny can effect the population.
This can be accomplished by codifying within the social contract a warning (for
the lack of a better term) against the high merit of greed.
It is sufficient to note that the demise of Enron as
a viable corporate agency has had far reaching ramifications which have been
temporally mitigated by what can best be described as biased media coverage and
propaganda. This is apparent in the vacated conviction of Kenny Lay in an
attempt to diminish the damage to his reputation. Such action is understandable
only when one realizes that Mr. Lay and those who judged him, are from the same
social class. It is also, however, an attempt to prevent future historians from
gaining access the record of events.
Timothy McVeigh
While in isolation such court action may be seen as
an act of kindness to the family, such kindness is seldom extended to the
survivors of other convicted criminals. Timothy McVeigh, an equally despised
villain in U.S.
history, is a decorated U.S. Army veteran. He was convicted for his part in the
Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building
The United
States has different rules for economic
criminals and murderers. Kenneth Lay was free after his conviction in May of
2006 until his death in July of 2006. Tim McVeigh remained in custody of the
government from his arrest in April of 1995 until his execution in 2001.
McVeigh was responsible for the deaths of 168 people. Kenneth Lay was
responsible for the economic destruction of thousands. Mr. Lay was tried,
convicted, and he, too, was a criminal.
While not arguing for stiffer treatment of criminals,
this point is raised to illustrate that the corporate criminals and
street/political criminals are treated differently even after they are dead.
This shows that corporate officers in the opening days of the new millennium,
are held, for whatever reasons, in higher regard then the average citizen of
the United States .
As a nation, it is still unacknowledged that the few have the ability to
inflict suffering, hardship and deprivation of the many. The few are numbered
in the hundreds; the many are numbered in the millions.
The historical ideals, while appearing to be good,
often fall short of addressing the reality of the dependence and inter-dependence
of society on the corporate entity. However, those same ideals, commentaries,
and writings equally shed light on the need for a common social order which
provides equity (or justice, if preferred) for all citizens. Even in
acknowledging that as an acceptable fact, the citizens of the United States are dependent on,
what one might label as, the neo-feudal lords of the Corporations. While
post-modernist philosophy wants to argue about individual perception, the fact
that the few control access to the global resources is not refutable.
Economic Reality
Both conservatives and progressives (liberals) will
argue that the courts often, out of necessity, operate in their own universe
separate from the reality of common life. The same holds true for the
privileged few of Corporate America who are making the decision which affect
common life. Both classes (that term is used loosely through this work),
function in relative isolation of privilege. No amount of rhetoric will alter
economic reality.
Gasoline might be an example. Beginning with Eisenhower’s
decision in Post World War Two America, and Levitt’s expansion of suburbia,
driving became no longer a privilege or a luxury (contrary to the view of the
legal community). No matter what is decreed by those who have their hands of
the controls of the nation, Gasoline is now, by necessity, a staple of life in
the U.S.
With very few exceptions, mostly in the communities
well established before Eisenhower’s decision, public transportation no longer
exists, or is singularly inefficient. For example, a thirty minute drive from West Covina , California
to Industry, California
is a three hour bus trip via public transportation, and this requires a three
block walk at the end of the line. An eight minute drive from Mansfield Highway
and I-20 in Forest Hill will get one to Tarrant County
Community College U.S.
is no longer an option of privilege, but a necessity by design to support the
automobile, and petroleum corporations.
Gasoline
Gasoline is a basic commodity in the United States .
Gasoline, the staple of transportation and commerce, has almost doubled in
consumption since 2001. This in turn has pushed the price of other basic
commodities upward. It should be noted that Gasoline heretofore has not kept up
with inflation. Gasoline, which was roughly $.53 a gallon in the mid-1970s, if
adjusted for inflation over the past 30 years, should be around $5.00 a gallon.
Over the last six years, it has been allowed freely to float upward in
correction. This in turn has pushed up the prices of other commodities. Wages,
during the past six years, due to global competition in the workplace have not
kept up with inflation during the fuel price increases. While the CEO has
reaped the benefits of windfalls during this era, the average worker has been
losing ground in the battle to maintain the same socioeconomic status they
enjoyed in the last decade. As James M. Cypher wrote in Who Gorges, Who Serves, and Who
Gets Roasted? published in the
January/February 2007 edition of Dollars
& Sense Magazine, “Not since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century—during
what Mark Twain referred to as ‘the Great Barbeque’—has the country witnessed
such a rapid shift in the distribution of economic resources.”[7] This
is not individual perception, this is fact based on income generated from the
services to the corporations and the cost of living in the United States today.
The only
noticeable increase has gone to corporate executives during the same period.
Honest accounting dictates that inflation is diminishing the ability of the
middle class to sustain their socioeconomic status. As the middle class declines,
the nation’s politics becomes less stable.
Right now,
far too much of the economic resources are under the control of far too few who
are under no obligation whatsoever to insure reasonable compensation for the
services rendered to them by their fellow countrymen. Looking at what was
written by Adam Smith, and Thomas Jefferson, there is little reason to believe
that the corporations have the welfare of the nation at heart. Based on the
arguments coming out of the Conservative political arena, it is quite apparent
that the majority of citizens of the United States , or any nation in
which the corporations operate, are held in contempt by the people who do
control the economic resources of those nations.
Greed
At no point,
even in the annals of antiquity, has such as situation been considered “good,”
“Godly,” or “morally acceptable.” Greed is not good! Diminishing
economic resources of the many, and the hardship inflicted upon them, has a way
of enlightening even the most ardent believer in capitalistic individualism and
social stratification.
[1]
In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
Retrieved 16:50, April 25, 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Wealth_of_Nations&oldid=125167317).
[2]
BrainyQuote. (2004). In Thomas Jefferson Quotes . BrainyMedia. Retrieved June
17, 2008, from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/q138493.html
[5]
Padover, Saul K. (1939). Thomas Jefferson on Democracy. New York : Appleton-Century Company, Inc.
p.89
[6]
Enron. (2007, April 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved
19:01, April 25, 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Enron&oldid=125889068
[7]
Cypher, J. M. (2007, January). Slicing Up at the Long Barbeque: Who Gorges, Who
Serves, and Who Gets Roasted? Dollars & Sense: The Magazine of Economic
Justice, 269. Retrieved June 17, 2008, from
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2007/0107cypher.html
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