by Gary Brumback / March 29th, 2012
Corporate America along with its three pawns, the executive,
legislative, and judicial branches of our government, are slowly driving
our nation to ruination. The signs of the rot and ruin are everywhere,
not just from sea to shining sea across our land but on foreign land as
well. Corporate America and its pawns for self-serving purposes are
directly responsible for murderous imperialism on foreign land, for
America among industrialized nations having the worst socio-economic
conditions, and for harming Americans sometimes fatally through the
services and products they buy, the air they breathe, and the water they
drink.
Government reforms would go a long way toward slowing our decline and
even reversing it eventually. Government reform could take away the
enormous favors it bestows on corporate America, favors sometimes so
large that they keep otherwise drowning corporations afloat. But
government is intransigent and will continue to be corruptible at the
hands of corporate America. More attention therefore needs to be turned
toward corporate reform.
Furthermore, while corporate America may be too obtuse or complacent
to realize it, their own reform may be good for them in the long run. As
an organizational psychologist for nearly half a century I know how
inefficient the corporate organizational structure is and how poorly
corporations are run. Most of them would probably have a very tough
going if they lost government handouts and hands-off corporate
wrongdoing. A corporation that was properly organized and well run with
the proper standards of performance and self accountability ought to be
able to make up for its ill begotten profits.
Corporate America: An Overview
Big government is undeniably too big yet it is dwarfed by the number
of corporations and their people and is totally overpowered by corporate
America (if corporate reform were a success, there would be no excuse
for a bloated and massive government). Corporate America is very
heterogeneous spread as it is across many different manufacturing and
service industries yet has a common goal of advancing itself regardless
of the means. There are about 17,000 corporations in corporate America
if we arbitrarily define any of its corporate members as having over 500
employees.
Since size, corruption and abusive power usually go together we ought
to divide corporations or their industries into three categories of
size, small, medium, and large as modified by the scale of harm done and
assign reform priorities accordingly.
As big and powerful as it is overall, Corporate America nevertheless
accounts for only about 20% of all businesses in America. The rest is
referred to as small business, but it is not small in the size of its
total workforce. Small business employs far more people than do
corporations. Small business, if it would unite into a coordinated
counterforce could be a powerful opponent of the entire corpocracy.
Corporate America’s Allies: An Overview
Not counting its “marriage partner,” that is, government, corporate
America has many allies it can depend on to further its interests either
by supporting and/or accepting them: the touts and shills; the
cultists; NGOs; small business; compromised professions and sciences;
the bystanders; and even foreign enemies. With the possible exception of
the bystanders, an ally benefits directly or indirectly from its
explicit or tacit alliance with corporate America. An ally that is
explicit and very active in its support of corporate America ought to be
considered accomplices in contrast to tacit and passive allies. Any
corporate reform strategy must include corporate America’s accomplices
or risk being blindsided by them.
Touts and Shills. They are a motley lot of
accomplices and the difference between a tout and a shill isn’t always
clear cut. Touts (that’s what Winston Churchill called lobbyists) are
hired and paid to swarm inside government and lobby it for their
clients. Anyone, any organization, any association can be a shill. Even
politicians or judges can be shills. As a matter of fact, if you want to
call government the biggest shill, I won’t disagree with you.
A shill’s focus is usually not as laser beamed as a tout’s. Shills
generally offer paeans to the corpocracy and its conservative,
free-market ideological underpinnings. Think of shrill shills like
ideologically blinded, ranting and raving radio talk show hosts as an
extreme example. Touts, on the other hand, concentrate on getting
specific favors for particular corporate members of the corpocracy, be
they a certain corporation or a particular industry.
Consider the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an extremely influential shill
and tout. As I wrote in the December 13, 2011 issue of OpEdNews.com the
USCC was instrumental in furthering the imminent US Supreme Court
Justice Lewis F. Powell’s “battle” plan to revive a dormant corporate
America. The USCC has been called by the authors of a
Washington Post story the “goliath of the lobbying world,” making Big Pharma look like a piker.
Shills that I’ll lump together include: talking-head pundits and the
rabble rousers shouting into a mike; “Erudites” squirreled away in think
tanks authoring corporate gospel; and “front” groups, whose purpose is
to mask corporate intent and consequences and call them what they are
not. Then there are in varying shades of shill the business and law
schools that mint the new recruits for the managerial and executive
ranks throughout corporate America and supply it with lawyers paid well
to argue the legality of any corporate action no matter how harmful.
The cultists. One of the most insidious cults is the
“cult of growth,” preferably fast growth, every quarter. The cultists
in it generally aren’t shrill shills but their views on, and promotion
of, unbridled growth sometimes go to the extreme and the actions
sometimes condoned for achieving growth go to the extreme. In this cult
are mostly mainstream economists, management gurus, and speculative
investors and their brokers. There is even a politically activist
organization called the “Club of Growth” that is for bridled taxes and
unbridled growth.” This cult helps fuel corporate America’s wrongdoing
by reinforcing speculative investing, globalization, environmental
exploitation and what author Roger Terry in his book calls a kind of
“economic insanity.”
Another cult is the conservatives who mostly occupy the right wing of
the once proud Republican Party that called Abraham Lincoln its first
U.S. President. This Party has become, says the Nobel laureate in
economics, Paul Krugman, a strident group of malcontents “acting out of
pure spite like a ‘bratty 13-year-old.” They spew provocative and
deceitful exhortations and slogans (e.g., “let’s reload,” “don’t tread
on me,” “freedom works”) and are against government solutions,
particularly social welfare (so miserly it is dwarfed by corporate
welfare).
“Anticorpocracy” NGOs. What you see is not
necessarily what you get when it comes to the realm of NGOs that purport
to be opposed to one or more facets of the corpocracy. In the February
23, 2012 issue of OpEdNews.com I wrote about my frustrating experience
in trying to get what I call “two-fisted democracy power” organized and
unleashed, and I included profiles of two financially well-endowed and
large NGOs that appear to depend more for their existence on the
corpocracy’s continuation than on ending it and reclaiming democracy. I
had been forewarned about this and so I expect I will encounter many
more compromised NGOs as I continue contacting them. If they refuse to
unite or at least coordinate their separate government reform
initiatives, then putting more emphasis on corporate reform becomes
paramount.
Small business. Small business is no longer the
backbone of our economy. Its backbone has been crushed. It has become
both a victim of, and to some extent a compromised ally, corporate
America.
Compromised professions and sciences. Probably the
most shameful of this diverse lot are people of the cloth; that is, the
religious profession. It is full of “pulpiteers” who mouth scripture and
generalities about sin for fear of alienating those in the pews who put
profit and power before honor when not in a house of worship. Next
would have to be the legal profession, especially its corporate lawyers
who specialize, to take an excerpt from the title of Ralph Nader and
Wesley Smith’s book, in the “perversion of justice.” Next might be the
mainstream journalism profession that has been compromised by the media
magnates. I would also not leave out most of the other professions as
well as the sciences because they have been compromised in various ways
such as receiving government and corporate funding. Society tends to
place far too much unguarded trust in the performance of professions and
sciences because of their education, training, and standards of
performance.
The bystanders. This passive and amorphous lot
usually known as the silent majority is the most populous of all the
allies. It includes fatalistic people, cowed and fearful people;
bamboozled and distracted people; and exhausted people too busy trying
to eke out a living.
Foreign enemies. This is not a mistaken inclusion here. Sociology professor Charles Derber contends in his book,
Regime Change begins at Home
that “—today’s regime (aka today’s corpocracy) “can survive only by
practicing a foreign policy of bad faith that [he calls]
‘marry-your-enemy.’” Carrying out this policy fattens the defense
industry, including beefing up its sale of arms (the U.S. is the world’s
top arms seller); opens up, protects, and expands corporations’ foreign
markets and exploitation of natural resources (oil and minerals) and
cheap labor; keeps politicians in office; and distracts the American
public from growing socio-economic deterioration at home
Finding the Scoundrels
There are dozens of non-governmental watchdogs monitoring various
industries, their corporations, and to some extent their accomplices
(e.g. the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, certain think tanks, etc.)
Vetting over 17,000 corporations and countless accomplices (allies
that actively aid and abet scoundrel corporations) would be silly.
Relying on a random sampling of them would net a catch of scoundrels,
but the overall goal of ending the corpocracy and reclaiming democracy
obviously must not be left to chance. The best approach would be a
coordinated search among many existing watchdog groups.
Here is a suggested plan these groups could follow for vetting corporate America and its accomplices:
1. Set a threshold of wrongdoing. There are so many ethical values
and so many harmful ways to breech them that the severity of the harm
done needs to be graded, starting with determining whether there is any
reasonable evidence that harm has occurred in the first place. For each
of the three dimensions of harm — psychological, physical, and
economical — there needs to be a consensus on a threshold of harm that
excludes immaterial consequences. Determining the thresholds would be
very easy to do but necessary. There is plenty enough reform work to do
without getting bogged down in trivia.
2. Name the obvious first. Some industries, their corporations, and
their allies do not need to be vetted. They are the most rotten apples
in the barrel. Offhand, I can think of six. Merchants of death, such as
corporations in the “defense” industry would be first. Second would be
the nuclear industry and its corporations. Third would be the
agribusiness industry because of its poisoning of our food and drinking
water. The fourth would be the financial “disservices” industry and its
gangsters. The fifth would be the pharmaceutical industry where health
often takes a backseat to wealth. The sixth would be certain allies like
the trade lobbies (e.g., for the defense and pharmaceutical industries)
and the USCC.
3. Vet the rest. Doing this will take some time so this is a good
place to mention Jamie Court’s “corporateer quotient” that he wrote
about in his book,
Corporateering and who is president of Consumer Watchdog.
The quotient is derived from answers to 18 questions (e.g., “what
percentage of total expenditures is spent on political contributions and
trade lobbying”). His questionnaire or some adaptation of it could be
used in the vetting process while keeping in mind the complication, as
Court does, that not many of the answers are publicly available even
though “none of the questions are trade secrets.”
4. Don’t overlook any saints. There surely must be a few honorable
exceptions among corpocracy America and its allies who could conceivably
serve as inspiring exemplars. The search might turn out embarrassing
though. I remember, for example, the pundits who were featured in a
business magazine after having extolled Enron very shortly before that
corporation imploded from its own misdeeds. An exemplary corporation
therefore ought to be one that has passed rigorous screening.
Onward to Corporate Reform
Watchdogs that only watch are nothing more than lapdogs. We Americans
ought to have had enough of an over-fed, lazy-fed lapdog that lets
corporate America exploit and harm us. Once the vetting is done,
therefore, a strategic approach to reforming the scoundrels needs to be
planned and pursued.
How Not to Proceed: Three Stories of Mice at the Table with Hungry Cats
Confrontation, collaboration and/or compromise are stances
instigators of corporate reform might take toward corrupt industries and
their corporations. I will tell you three short stories of
collaboration and compromise. The lesson taken from them is that mice
should never sit down at the table with hungry cats.
The “apparel industry partnership.” Several unions, human rights
groups, and religious groups sat down at the table with the apparel
industry to seek a compromise solution on curbing or controlling
sweatshops. Guess who got suckered and walked away with nothing?
The Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics. Its mission
is to bring “together leaders from business and academia to—renew and
enhance the link between ethical behavior and business practice through
executive education programs, practitioner-focused research and
outreach.” Do you know anything about the Business Roundtable? If you
do, you know which “partner” carries the day.
Peace through commerce. This is the partial title of a book I
reviewed a year ago. Its editor advocates collaborations between
multinational corporations and NGOs aimed at reducing violence. The
editor lets various contributors illustrate with true stories their
collaborations in several different countries. The cited corporations
mostly have a history of corruption and the illustrations clearly tell
me that the editor, the NGOs, and the contributors (except for
contributors who were executives in corporate PR departments) were
hoodwinked.
A Possible Strategy for Instigating Corporate Reform
1. With the exception of the death merchants, for each of the
industries and their corporations with records of the most harmful
wrongdoing a large strike force cadre of NGOs and the most relevant
movement(s) would be established. Where a
bona fide movement
did not exist the cadre would be responsible for developing one
(possibly relying on the guidance of authoritative sources such as Si
Kahn and his book
Organizing guide for grassroots leaders). A
large cadre would also be established for allies that are common to all
of the industries such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and think tanks.
This strategy of using specific cadres would represent a modified and
scaled-down version of my two-fisted democracy proposal.
2. For each selected industry the corresponding cadre would target
specific corporations and any specific allies unique to them. Priorities
in order and timing of the confrontations would depend on the
behavioral profiles of the corporations and their allies.
3. The different cadres would coordinate their plans and strategies
but tailor them as necessary to the specific nature of each target. All
of the cadres should collaborate in planning and carrying out a campaign
of blitzing the public about their entire venture and soliciting
support for it (such as joining in any planned massive demonstrations or
boycotts).
Once a cadre was ready it would begin confronting its target
corporations/accomplices, escalating the confrontation to a more
aggressive stage if the corporation’s response in the previous step was
unsatisfactory.
4. In the initial confrontation, regardless of whether the
corporation/accomplice had been a target before, a certified letter
would be sent to the corporation’s CEO and chair of the board of
directors with a copy to any accomplice.
Letters to corporations that have already been confronted by
activists would reflect that fact. The letters would also a) present an
assessment of each corporation’s profile of wrongdoing along with a
request for a self-assessment to be made such as completing the
questionnaire developed by Jamie Court and introduced in his book,
Corporateering;
b) make the case for why the corporation should reject the corpocracy
and undertake self-reforms such as those I suggested in my first book,
Tall Performance from Short Organizations Through We/Me Power and in my most recent book,
The Corporacy and Megaliio’s Turn Up Strategy;
c) advise the corporation to repair major harms its actions have
caused; and d) advise the corporation to resolve whatever longstanding
or current issues have already been raised by activist groups. The
notice would close by requesting a response within one month and saying
the response would influence the cadre’s next steps.
5. Complying corporations, if there are any, would be closely
monitored and issued progress reports until, and if, it was cleared by
the cadre. Recalcitrant corporations would be hit by a barrage of
escalating confrontations that would include massive boycotts, massive
protest demonstrations, lawsuits, blitzing the public with publicity,
and telling the obsequious, relevant government agencies to get on board
pronto with the reformers, not their targets.
Is Corporate Self-reform Realistically Possible?
My answer is “yes” if corporations are aggressively confronted; if
they are shown models of properly organized and run corporations, along
with any real exemplary corporations; and if the monitoring and pressure
never ease or cease until there is the right kind of self reform.
The Special Case of the Death Merchants
I will close with this sobering thought. If the death merchants and
their government pawns aren’t stopped. they will eventually be the death
of America. This part of the corpocracy is the one part where it will
be absolutely imperative to organize and unleash a (civil) war on war.
The only way to do this would be to confront not only the “defense”
industry but also those parts of our government that depend the most on
militarism and endless wars.
Goldman Sachs is represented [secretly] in Delaware by the Law firm Morris Nichols Arsht & Tunnell ("
