Why Is It America all about Corporate Profit?
                                                     By: Alex Redd
                                                        Madison, WI
                                                       May 11, 2003             
            


Corporate profit and crime as well as the displacement of the underprivileged in American society have been an inevitable debate and concern among many scholars in the field of criminal justice research. The marriage between the system of government and corporations as well as the crafty ways and means in which they collaborate to maximize profit at the expense of the minority population in American society would be the main focus of this essay.

Is corporate America all about corporate profit? This question may puzzle the emotions of many stemming from recent news and development that unfold from the business dealings of corporate giants---both in the U.S and overseas. I hope to also explain some of impeding factors that undermine the upward social mobility of the communities of color and the continued dubious trends and activities of the “minority” that control the government (the rich and affluent class). Various crimes continue to pervade the American society resulting in the building of more public and private prisons on both the public and private levels. However, the distinction between corporate crime and street crime needs to be examined as unequal. 

Crime, as we will examine in this essay would reveal that the affluent class in America with both political and economic connections and influence in government are the ones who commit the highest crime in this country: corporate crime, for example, is the highest rising crime according to statistical evidence. The Eron case with its CEO Ken Lay and others, Taco Bell's implication of cooking its accounting book to circumvent taxes, including other latest corporate criminal activities by corporate giants are all indications that America is all about corporate profit. 

The underlying cause of corporate crime is profit motive that manifests itself into capitalism. The structure of American corporations owned by the rich and the powerful operate as a political system with money at the core of its origin. This is true especially as we see the current composition of big American conglomerates that operate in the United States and other parts of the world. Capitalism, the language of free trade of American multi-national corporations tends to undermine and disrupt the political and socioeconomic arrangements of poor countries around the world today. Multi-national corporations, which are the embodiment of core countries, exploit cheap labor at plants and factories in many third world countries. For example, in Mexico, Nike, an American company builds huge factories where Mexicans are employed to labor for low wages without comprehensive health benefit package. These multi-national corporations find their loophole to exploit cheap labor in these
 countries because they see such venture as an opportunity to pursue profit above all else. 

This leads to the high unemployment rate in America that perpetuates street crime. As these multi-national corporations pursue huge profit in other countries, the adverse effect result in relocation of jobs, downward pressure on wage scales, lack of support for cities in the form of taxation and benefits. The shift towards lower wages, downsizing, relocation, increase in temporary jobs and deletion of benefits all put pressures on city populations, which eventually cause increasing crime. Relocation of many American corporations into other third world countries is a way solely designed to circumvent taxes here. I wonder why the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) cannot enforce laws against such continued trends and activities of American companies that evade taxes. 


The fact remains that those who owned and operate these multi-national corporations are well entrenched within the system of government; hence it is nearly impossible for the IRS to regulate their dubious activities. It is the corporations who decide to curb the arms of enforcement law because they lobby and hugely contribute money to political party efforts as well as individual politicians in Congress. Let’s understand that the lost of corporate taxes can reduce a nation’s ability to support the poor and downsized workers. The supra-national governance agreement known as NAFTA and WTO and institutions helped pave the way for such free marketeering. With the elimination of trade barriers for these corporations, many dubious trade activities continue underground. These dubious activities include drug trafficking and other foreseeable things that tend to cause rising crime and incarceration of individuals. International corporate is most notable in these circumstances that co
ntribute to street crime in America.

These international corporations will continue to have their way because they are awarded with reduced taxation, increased proprietary funds to private militaries in other countries to reduce public awareness about their exploitation of labor and natural resources. I would view this kind of continued trend as an international corporate crime. My suspicion about corporate power, manipulation and crime aroused from the incident that occurred in Nigeria. As we may be aware, oil is Nigeria’s main export primarily to the United States which worth about 95 percent of foreign earnings. An attempt by Ogoni leaders in Nigeria to clean up their land near the Shell oil wells was met with brutal reprisals at the hands of Nigerian government elites. The Shell Company lose about 15 billion barrels of oil wells in 1992 and 1993 following protest and demonstration of Ogoni leaders for Shell to pillage their land (Kevin Wehr, CJ Lecturer). As a result, Shell executives masterminded a scheme 
along with the Nigerian leadership to get rid of eight Ogoni leaders, including Ken Sarowiwa. Shell, in my opinion, connived with the Nigerian leadership to execute leaders of the Ogoni people as a way to stave off any further threats by ethnic advocacy groups and members in order to pursue their corporate interests and profit. The fact remains that multi-national corporations pursue profit above all else. As we can see in America today, prison centers are big time moneymaking venture that incorporates sleazy underlings at the behest of the affluent class in government. 

It is revealed that private prisons is one of the main businesses that some of the elite class in both the governmental circles and private sectors undertake to maximize profit; this evidenced from past American government officials’ involvement in the prison business. The first private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a fast-growing empire is operated by well-connected affluent individual of the past Reagan government. Dr. Crants, CCA’s president and visionary, CCA co-founder Tom Beasley, served as chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party and finally, T. Don Hutto, former commissioner of the Virginia and Arkansas Department of Corrections have obtained billion of dollars in profit from private prisons. These fellows of the old order of the Reagan regime have expanded the CCA to twenty-five states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Australia and the United Kingdom. 

The second large private prison business is Wackenhut Corrections. Since going public in 1994, Wackenhut stock price has soared 800 percent and split once. Who’s behind this large private prison business? The company’s boards of directors include Frank Carlucci, former NSA advisor to President Reagan; Bobby Inman, formerly deputy director of the CIA. Behind the CCA and Wackenhut is a hungry pack of some sixteen other firms that run local jails, private prisons, and INS detention centers. It is estimated that giant Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs, and Merill Lynch write between $2 and $3 billion in prison construction bonds every year. 

So with the clandestine operation of these multi-national corporations and private prisons owned by the affluent people would make sense for one to think the owners receive some kind of government backing. That is the reason why these businesses continue to survive with maximum profit in the face of stiff opposition from environmentalists and other well-meaning citizens. Powerfully connected men lead these companies with sophisticated political agendas and are positioning themselves for a long-term growth and political influence. 



                                           BIBLIOGRAPHY
John Rapley. Understanding Development: Theory and Practice in the Third World, 1996.
Christian Parenti. Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis, 2000. 
Kevin Wehr. Lecturer, University of Wisconsin, Criminal Justice in America 131, Spring 2002


Thanks for reading, 
Alex Redd
We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that time is ripe to do right.

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