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Corporate Control of Public Health: Case Studies and Call to Action

This article explores the dominance of corporations in the global economy, their impact on public health, and the need for action. It covers topics such as corporate taxation, CEO pay, minimum wage, and corporate PR tactics.

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Corporate Control of Public Health: Case Studies and Call to Action

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  1. Corporate Control of Public Health:Case Studies and Call to Action Martin Donohoe

  2. Am I Stoned? A 1999 Utah anti-drug pamphlet warns: “Danger signs that your child may be smoking marijuana include excessive preoccupation with social causes, race relations, and environmental issues”

  3. Corporations Dominate the Global Economy • Almost 6 million corporations • 90% of transnational corporations headquartered in Northern Hemisphere • 500 companies control 70% of world trade

  4. Corporations Dominate the Global Economy • 53 of the world’s 100 largest economies are private corporations; 47 are countries • Wal-Mart is larger than Israel and Greece

  5. The Stock Market • The top 1% of Americans owns 35% of all stocks, bonds, and mutual fund assets • Consequences of Differential Stock Ownership • Corporations are answerable to their shareholders • Governments are answerable (at least in theory) to their citizens (either through elections or revolutions)

  6. Corporations • Internalize profits • $2.0 trillion (2015) • Externalize health and environmental costs

  7. Corporate Taxation • Corporations shouldered over 30% of the nation’s tax burden in 1950 vs. 8% today • Nearly 1/3 of all large U.S. corporations pay no annual tax

  8. Corporate Taxation • Big business claims that U.S. corporations pay the highest corporate taxes in the world (35%) • FALSE: The rate actually paid, after foreign governments get their cuts, money sent to foreign subsidiaries, loopholes, etc. = 27% (U.S. Treasury Department) vs. 28% average for 30 OECD nations • 17% for corporations with assets over $10 million

  9. Reasons for Inadequate Corporate Taxation • Corporate tax breaks/loopholes • Corporate welfare • Cheating and under-payment common • Offshore tax havens shelter capital

  10. Ugland House, Cayman Islands18,000 Corporations Registered Here

  11. Corporate Profits:Where do they go? • S and P 500, $2.4 trillion total (2015) • 54% to stock buybacks that help boost executive pay • 37% to dividends for shareholders • 9% to R & D and training and raises for workers combined

  12. Job Creators?

  13. Corporate Taxation • 2004: Bush administration offered temporary tax holiday on foreign earnings • $300 billion in profit repatriated • 92% went to dividend payouts, stock buybacks, and corporate coffers • Only 8% went to R and D, new factories, and hiring

  14. Exorbitant CEO Pay • The average CEO makes 373X the salary of the average U.S. worker (1960 - 41X) • Mexico 45:1 • Britain 25:1 • Japan 10:1 • US Military: 20:1 (top rank : lowest rank) • US ratio of average CEO to minimum wage worker = 774:1

  15. Exorbitant CEO Pay • Median U.S. CEO salary (for S and P 500 corporations) = $10 million (2016) • CEO salaries up 997% since 1978 • Average worker pay up 11%

  16. Most Recent Annual CEO Pay Average for Large Corporations, in Millions of Dollars (2016) • Japan: $2.4 • France: $2.8 • India: $3.1 • Australia: $5.4 • Germany: $8.4 • Canada: $9.3 • UK: $9.6 • USA: 17.0

  17. Exorbitant CEO Pay • The average CEO makes 250-400X the salary of the average U.S. worker (1960 - 41X) • Mexico 45:1 • Britain 25:1 • Japan 10:1 • US Military: 20:1 (top rank : lowest rank)

  18. The Mega-Rich • Worried / Investing in personal security • Bodyguards • Armored cars • Bullet-proof windows; machine gun proof doors • Home security fogs • Panic rooms • Fully-stocked home medical suites • Yachts with escape submarines • Islands

  19. Workers • Weekly wages for the average American worker are up 9% from 1973, but productivity is up 72%

  20. Minimum Wage ≠ Living Wage • Federal minimum wage = $7.25/hr • 25 states and DC have higher minimum wages (Oregon = $9.75/hr, 2014) • $14,500/yr for full-time job • Real value down over 40% compared with 1968 • Inadequate to pay rent, buy food and clothing

  21. Minimum Wage ≠ Living Wage • Increasing to $9.25/hr on Jan 1, 2015 • Movements supporting $15/hr (still inadequate) • Over ½ of nation’s basic public assistance funds go to working families (substitute for benefits, therefore, taxes support corporations)

  22. Solutions:Living Wage • Over 140 municipalities have adopted living wage laws • Including NY, LA, SFO, Seattle, Chicago, and Philadelphia • 15 states now have minimum wages that exceed the federal requirement • 10 states have passed pre-emptive laws forbidding cities and counties from raising the minimum wage

  23. Corporate PR Tactics • Advertising • “The art of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need.“ (Will Rogers) • Astroturf - artificially-created grassroots coalitions • Corporate front groups • Corporate espionage: spying, bribes

  24. Corporate PR tactics • Invoke poor people as beneficiaries • Characterize opposition as “technophobic,” anti-science,” and “against progress” • Portray their products as environmentally beneficial despite evidence to the contrary • Host all-expense paid educational seminars for federal judges

  25. Public Relations • $200 billion industry • PR flacks now outnumber journalists • 40% fewer journalists than just a decade ago • “Fake news” epidemic; gaslighting

  26. Greenwash • Public relations / ad campaigns • BP invests $100 million annually in clean energy = amt. it spends annually to market itself as moving “Beyond Petroleum”

  27. Sponsored Environmental Education Materials (Examples) • International Paper -“Clearcutting promotes growth of trees that require full sunlight and allows efficient site preparation for the next crop” • Exxon’s “Energy Cube” -“Gasoline is simply solar power hidden in decayed matter” -“Offshore drilling creates reefs for fish”

  28. Sponsored Environmental Education Materials (Examples) • American Coal Foundation’s “Power from Coal”: • “The earth could benefit rather than be harmed from increased carbon dioxide.”

  29. Academics/Professional Organizations Affected • Increasing corporatization of academia • For-profit schools • Charter schools • Educational corporations

  30. Academics/Professional Organizations Affected • ↑Private commercial funding of university research • Front-end domination and rear-end repression affect research agenda, dissemination of knowledge • Undone science • Secrecy/gag clauses • Corporate-sponsored harassment of scientists

  31. Academics/Professional Organizations Affected • For-profit colleges (e.g., University of Phoenix, ITT Tech, Trump University) were growing, marked by corruption, high interest rates on loans to the un- and under-qualified (some have shut down, paid fines, settled lawsuits) • Benefit largely from taxpayer money • Dramatic decrease in tenured faculty, rise in administrators • Gagging of researchers at federal agencies demoralizing, can affect recruitment of quality scientists

  32. Union of Concerned Scientists (2015)

  33. The Media • 5 corporations control majority of US media (down from 50 in 1983) • Extensive corporate-media links

  34. Global Warming: Controversial? • Of 928 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, none were in doubt as to the existence or cause of global warming • Of 636 articles in the popular press (NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, WSJ), 53% expressed doubt as to the existence (and primary cause) of global warming Science 2004;306:1686-7 (Study covers 1993-2003)

  35. Lobbying • Approximately 40,000 lobbyists (11,781 full-time) • Estimates of return on lobbying range from $28 to $212 for every $1 spent (higher values more likely)

  36. Lobbying • Oxfam study (2008-14) of 50 major US corporations found return of $130 in tax breaks and $4,000 in tax subsidies for every $1 spent on lobbying • Return on campaign contributions for elections for the most politically active companies = $760 per $1 spent

  37. Lobbying/Campaign Contributions • Koch brothers spent over $400 million (2012) • All single issue ideological groups combined (e.g., pro-choice, anti-abortion, feminist and consumer organizations, senior citizens, etc.) = less than $100 million (2012) • Lobbying groups spent 3.2 billion in 2014

  38. Lobbying (2012) • Corporations spent $86 for every $1 spent by civic groups • Corporations spent $56 for every $1 spent by labor unions • Labor union membership declining

  39. Top-Spending Industries, 2015 • Pharmaceuticals/Health Products - $240,218,911 • Insurance - $157,354,782 • Oil & Gas - $129,876,004 • Business Associations - $128,808,164 • Electronics Mfg & Equip - $121,948,480 • Electric Utilities - $117,910,016

  40. Top-Spending Industries, 2015 • Misc. Manufacturing & Distributing - $105,904,266 • Securities & Investment - $98,133,863 • Hospitals/Nursing Homes - $93,497,884 • Telecom Services - $91,081,758 • Health Professionals - $89,878,202 • Air Transport - $81,722,628

  41. Top-Spending Industries, 2015 • Real Estate - $77,851,327 • Education - $77,222,880 • Defense Aerospace - $74,489,275 • Health Services/HMOs - $74,256,196 • Civil Servants/Public Officials - $71,597,628 • Commercial Banks - $64,962,735 • TV/Movies/Music - $62,142,091 • Automotive - $58,869,623

  42. Campaign Cash and Lobbying • Citizens United • McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission • Lobbying promotes international non-cooperation/isolationism

  43. Case Studies

  44. The alliance between GE Medical Systems and NY-Presbyterian Hospital

  45. General Electric • Ranked by Forbes as world’s largest company (based on equal weighting of sales, profits, assets, and market value) • 2014 revenues of $149 billion • Close to the GDP of more than 2/3 of U.N. member states • 2014 net after-tax profits of $15.2 billion • Majority from overseas operations

  46. General Electric • Makes household appliances, lighting, and medical equipment • Plastics division, which produced bisphenol A, spun off in 2008 • Produces jet engines and military hardware

  47. General Electric • Charles Wilson (CEO of GE pre- and post-WW II; helped oversee U.S. military production during WW II): • “The revulsion against war…will be an almost insuperable obstacle for us to overcome. For that reason, I am convinced that we must begin now to set the machinery in motion for a permanent wartime economy.”

  48. General Electric • Has built 91 nuclear power plants in 11 countries (including the troubled Fukushima Daishi plants in Japan) • Including 23 plants at 11 sites in U.S. • e.g., Hanford • ¼ of GE’s US reactors found to be defective

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