“THE fact is that people who made out like bandits, shoved money into their own pockets by the bucketful, and drove our economy into a crisis, have no apparent shame.” Larry Brown – National Union of Public and General Employees Ottawa, Canada. One of my firm convictions is that, whatever activity or enterprise we may engage in, we must NEVER forget that it is people, above all, who matters in the end – human beings like you and I, with blood coursing through our veins, and who with every heartbeat, are struggling to make an honest living in a harsh and uncaring world. Those who are unmindful of this and who are callous and indifferent to the pains and sufferings they inflict on others, in their selfish quest for wealth and self-aggrandizement, are as good as dead even though still living. During and in the aftermath of the Great Recession in the USA and elsewhere, untold suffering and misery were brought to bear upon helpless, innocent and decent people by the ruthless and rapacious acts of multinational corporations and big businesses, which revealed the inhuman and evil face of enterprise.
Corporations are run by people (mostly the super- rich and self- serving) whose overriding concern is PROFITS AND NOT PEOPLE. If more profits can be generated then these fat-cat executives, who run banks, investment firms, technology, construction, oil, insurance, health care and pharmaceutical companies, have no qualm in shutting down factories, shipping jobs overseas, breaking the backs of unions, paying miserly wages (but with outrageous compensation and bonuses for themselves), turning full-time jobs into part-time positions, snatching health care and other benefits from their employees, and creating a fear-based, intimidating and stultifying working environment. These are the people who (especially in the USA) can use their billions to influence greedy and corrupt politicians, and thereby, markedly affect the shape and outcome of policies, legislation, rules and regulations that may impact upon their business. Nowhere is this more shamelessly and obscenely evident than in the area of corporate taxation. On 6/01/2011, the non – profit Citizens For Tax Justice[CTJ], revealed that 12 of the USA largest Fortune 500 companies reported $170(US) billion in profits during the period of the Great Recession (2008 – 2010), but that they paid an effective tax rate of -1.5% (yes, negative 1.5%; the statutory corporate tax rate in the USA is 35%). Further, the CTJ noted that these 12 companies not only paid zero in taxes for the years 2008-2010, but that they also actually received tax subsidies that added $62.4 (US) billion to their bottom line. What these companies are enjoying is symptomatic of the widespread corporate tax avoidance in the USA. This is legalised greed at its worst and makes most wicked the assertion that there is ‘no money’ to fund socially desirable programmes. Just as recent as October 2013 food assistance benefits for over 45 million Americans were slashed, in the first – ever nationwide reduction in benefits under the US government’s Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP), popularly known as ‘food stamps’. The cuts total $11(US) billion over the next 3 years and amount on average to a month’s worth of food assistance. This will result in more privatision for millions of working people, including the poorest and most vulnerable – children, elderly, unemployed, disabled, and new mothers. In country after country, corporations (aided and abetted by greedy politicians) are gradually and systematically effecting a redistribution of income from the bottom of society to the top, i.e. from the poor people to the obscenely rich elite.
A striking and obscene example of the this greed infested corporate culture is seen in the USA when in 2013, according to the New York State Comptroller’s office, Wall Street companies handed out $26.7 (US) billion in bonuses to their 165,200 employees, up 15% over the previous year. Seen in perspective, this $26.7 (US) billion that the fat cats on Wall Street pocketed in bonuses is more than twice the paychecks of all the 1,085,000 Americans who work full – time at the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 (US) per hour. And these bonuses were based on the same high risk gambles that led to the catastrophic 2008 financial industry meltdown. Never in all history have gross incompetence and reckless greed been so handsomely rewarded. These outrageous bonuses have to be seen against the background of mass unemployment, rising poverty, and homelessness among the working class. According to the US National Center for Law and Economic Justice, in 2012, 46.5 million were living in poverty in the USA. The poverty rate (the % of all people in the US who are poor) was 15% for all Americans and 21.8 % for children under 18. It was revealed that 1 out of 7 people in the US are living in poverty and that children represent more than 1/3 of the people living in poverty. While the stock market in the USA is booming and banks , hedge funds and private equity firms are raking in tens of billions of dollars, 16.4 million children are living in poverty today i.e. nearly a quarter [22.6%] of the children in the USA. What is most shocking, shameful and disgusting is the financial billionaires who are profiting so immensely from the ‘recovery’ were the very culprits that took down the US economy in the first place by creating and pedaling toxic securities that puffed up and then burst the housing bubble. These financial mercenaries caused 8 million workers to lose their jobs in a matter of months and are directly responsible for almost 17 million American children going to bed every night hungry. What is equally sinister and wicked is that the major corporations have made record profits and profit margins (profits after expenses are covered) while simultaneously laying off workers in record numbers. They have, therefore, wrung huge profits from cutting labour costs to the bare bones. In other words, they have filled their coffers and lined their pockets at the expense of the pains, tears, and hunger of the working class. These ruthless monsters have no feelings left in them that they cannot see that, by their selfish and avaricious acts, they have snatched bread from the mouths of millions of children as they seek to augment their almost incalculable wealth.
Big companies have been the key drivers in the atrocious and shocking, but ever expanding, inequality in the distribution of wealth and income in the world today. According to the Economist magazine, 95% of the gains from the recovery in the USA have gone to the richest 1%. For the 99% there has been an undeclared wage freeze: the average wage has increased by only 0.4 %. The Business Insider magazine on 4/10/2013, revealed that the top 1% of Americans own a staggering 40% of the country’s net worth while the bottom 80% (8 out of 10 Americans) own only 7% of the country’s net worth. Also, it was noted that the top 1% owns 50% of the country’s financial assets and that big-company CEOs make 380 times as much as their average workers. In other words, it takes an average worker more than a month to make what the average CEO makes in an hour. Again, these shocking statistics have to be seen against the background of a US News & World Report that stated that as of July 2014 almost 91 million Americans over 16 years of age aren’t working and that there are 48 million people in the US in low-wage jobs. Any system that produces this kind of disparity with so much pain, suffering and misery for the overwhelming majority of its people, while the super-rich elite are literally chocking in their wealth, is lacking in all human decency and morality, is rotten to its very core, and is bound to fail. Now more than ever the inhuman and evil face of enterprise is most revealing and glaringly manifest.
CECIL RAMKIRATH
Bayonne, NJ, USA
