Steamd

Steve Tobak posted an article on his CNet blog today called How much does corporate fraud cost you? His comments raise some good questions and I think point out one of the primary reasons why our economy is what it is today.

Corporate greed has run amok for many, many years in this country. Now, you may say “That’s just capitalism!” and pretend that corporate greed doesn’t cause problems in this country. Unfortunately, corporations do have a greater hold on things than most people realize. One of the contributing factors of how bills are written and passed in Congress has to do with the influence of lobbyists…lobbyists who are employed full-time to lobby for a specific industry or company. To me, the sheet existence of these lobbyists means that they will have a greater influence than you and I on what bills are passed and how they are written. You can’t tell me that that doesn’t have a serious impact on how our government mandates things. It would seem that corporate greed is what drives political corruption in many circumstances.

What’s worse, our taxes are what pay for situations when corporate greed creates a collapse in a specific industry. Consider the recent events with Bear Stearns, an investment firm that was recently acquired by JP Morgan Chase and had ties to the current subprime mortgage crisis. This is a company that, had JP Morgan Chase not buy them out, would likely have cost taxpayers at least $3.2 billion in bail-outs due to lost investments. Bear Stearns was also accused of elevating the values of certain assets and investments even though they were worth much less. As to the validity of these accusations, I’m not certain, but the existence of lawsuits dealing with this does raise questions as to the integrity of the company.

The subprime mortgage crisis is a primary example of corporate greed. I have no doubt that some people made a ton of money off of this situation. Not every bank, borrower, and/or financial institution participated in the practice of predatory lending but I’m sure quite a few did. Regardless, I think the situation was caused by poor decisions by the companies granting the mortgages. To bail them out would be rewarding bad decisions. Personally I think these companies should allow home owners to refinance their home, get into a mortgage with a fixed interest rate, and increase the number of years on the mortgage so their payments are lower. A Congress without the influence of the mortgage industry could pass legislation for this. But given the current situation, I’m not sure if this will happen. A bail-out for subprime mortgages could still happen, a bail-out that would be payed for by taxpayers.

Then there’s Enron, an ex-poster child for corporate greed in this country. Here’s a company that due to shady accounting practices and greedy executives allowed the company skipped out on paying millions (possibly billions) in taxes, led to one of the largest bankruptcies in history, caused thousands of employees to lose their pensions, and ended with the indictment of two Enron executives, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. Lay obviously couldn’t handle it and shortly died later of a heart attack prior to sentencing. Skilling is currently serving a 24-year sentence in a Minnesota prison.

The current poster child for greed in this country is Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart makes billions of dollars in profit and yet their stores cost taxpayers money. Yes, there is a cost for low prices. Many employees earn wages that are below the poverty line. Approximately 50% of all Wal-Mart employees can’t afford the health insurance that the company offers. As such, many Wal-Mart employees are among the working poor and are forced to use social services to get health care, food stamps, and other needs. I’ve even heard reports of Wal-Mart employees using food stamps to purchase items in the same store they work at. What does this mean for you? It means that part of your tax dollars are helping to pay for the social services used by Wal-Mart employees in your area. For a company that earns billions a year you’d think they would make sure their employees are taken care of and don’t have to resort to using social services.

Not every company is bad, but a lot of corporations don’t care about you. They only care about the shareholder and their bottom-line. And greed is so powerful that shareholders and corporate executives would never considered reducing their own salaries and earnings just to ensure that their employees are happy.

So what can you do about it?

First, you can vote for politicians who won’t be corrupted or heavily influenced by corporate lobbyists. Educate yourself on the issues. Put your political differences asside and learn something about the politicians you’re voting for.

Second, you can support and buy from companies that treat their employees fairly and promote a better economy. You don’t have to buy from Wal-Mart or any other company that cares more about profit than their own employees. Remember that it’s ok to spend a little more if it means buying from a company that cares about you and their employees.

Corporate greed is one of the main problems that exists in our country. It doesn’t have to be that way though. It can change and it doesn’t even require a so-called socialist attitude either. It just requires a little common sense on the voting public.

Go rent and watch this DVD:

Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers

The amount of corruption and profiteering from the likes of Blackwater, Halliburton/KBR, CACI, and Titan is staggering! And the creators of this film are not lying about it either. Plenty of evidence and facts to backup their claims.

After watching the film, I feel that our occupation in Iraq has less to do with fighting terrorism and more to do with oil and government contracts. Do the math. The more troops we have in Iraq the more money these companies will make. The so-called “surge” in Iraq is nothing more than a “surge” in profits. For the past five years we let the Bush administration and our government line the pockets of corporate executives by privatizing so much of our military operations. All the while we were told that we were fighting a “noble cause” and that if we didn’t then the “terrorists would win”.

Some of these companies received these contracts without any opposition, any bidding, with no competition, and continues to be granted these contracts with little or no oversight. It should come as no surprise that Halliburton, the very company that Vice President Cheney was CEO of, got the majority of these contracts. As a member of the military serving in Iraq you can’t shit, shower, or shave without some form of intervention from Halliburton. What’s worse is that nothing has been done in Congress; no amendments or bills have been passed to ensure that these companies have proper oversight.

The United States government is being charged outrageous amounts of money with millions of dollars in overspending. This is your tax dollars at work, folks. If this doesn’t piss you off then I don’t know what to tell you.

I’m outraged beyond belief. I figured there was some corruption for sure…but this? Hell no! What they are doing is so un-patriotic, un-American, and un-Christian. It’s an absolute outrage! And we’re to believe that we’re actually fighting terrorism? The hell we are! It’s a lie, plain and simple. These people are profiting off of terrorism and the deaths of others. And it’s wrong…so damn wrong. So wrong that its about as bad as terrorism itself.

This needs to change. We need to stop the war profiteering. And you can change it by voting for someone who won’t put up with it any longer. McCain sure as hell won’t do it. I have serious doubts that Clinton will do anything constructive after her recent comments about Iran. So that only leaves one candidate left.

Guess who.

UPDATE: You can watch the entire film online at Freedocumentaries.org.