Corporate Theft.
The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But lets the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose.
- Old English Proverb
Issue:
A man takes a loaf of bread from a grocery store without payment; he is thrown in jail. This we call justice.
Wal-Mart, one of the world's wealthiest corporations, refuses to pay employees a living wage or provide health benefits; it receives tax benefits from the community. Apple Computer, the worlds wealthiest corporation, uses accounting tricks to deprive its home nation of tax dollars on billions of dollars in revenue and offshores most of its manufacturing; its actions get mentioned briefly in the press and investors and consumers flock to its offerings. State and local governments take land from homeowners and businesses and transfer the development rights to private developers; the developers are given tax breaks, receive revenue at the expense of the community and are lauded by community leaders. Amazon takes advantage of internet tax breaks and part-time workers to build a steamroller retail network that, like Wal-Mart, destroys countless businesses and saps life from communities around the world. Bank of America, Citicorp, J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and a host of other "too big to fail" financial institutions bankrupt the U.S. economy, destroy livelihoods and communities, receive taxpayer bailouts to save their executives and shareholders and the U.S. taxpayer gets nothing in return, and virtually none of the perpetrators are admonished or put on trial much less convicted for their crimes.
Yet pity the destitute who take a loaf of bread from a grocery store without payment to feed themselves or their family; they are thrown in jail. This is justice?
Deception:
Our view of theft is one that metes out the greatest punishment to the lowest-level offenders and usually lets the greatest criminals go free. Yet we pride ourselves on conducting a fair and nuanced system of justice, one that punishes criminals in accordance with the degree of offense. However it is we justify this approach, it is deception.
Reality:
The inequities in our definition and treatment of theft are a national disgrace and deserving of condemnation for their glaring injustice. We routinely arrest, charge, convict and imprison low-level offenders while forgiving the truly large offenders. Consider a few examples:
1. A Wal-Mart employee is fired from her job for advocating union membership while Wal-Mart transfers the expense of providing healthcare benefits to its employees onto the local community, pays below-poverty wages, destroys local businesses in communities already giving it tax breaks and drives U.S. manufacturing jobs offshore into countries where it bribes local officials - yet Wal-Mart executives are not arrested or charged for these thefts of livelihoods, wages, tax breaks and community.
2. A person stealing from an Apple Store is charged with theft - yet not a single Apple executive is arrested or charged for hiding from government its tax liability on billions of dollars in revenues.
3. Bank employees or job candidates at all levels routinely lose their jobs or are denied employment over minor crimes in their distant pasts, unrelated to the 2008 U.S. financial meltdown, on the basis of an overly broad and unjustly imposed government rule attempting to prevent a future economic debacle - yet bank executives are rarely charged for their actual complicity in the economic meltdown of the U.S. economy which cost trillions.
4. Protestors are arrested, jailed and charged for being present at a constitutionally protected rally while the objects of their protest, the large banking corporations that brought down the U.S. economy and cheated millions of their investments, continue to do business as usual with the help of massive U.S. taxpayer-financed bailouts.
Resolution:
It is time we rethink and redefine theft and the penalties for theft. We are a nation that shamefully permits the worst transgressions when committed by business - especially large corporations - yet lower the boom of our wrath on those who are the far lesser threat to our security and wealth. We must hold politicians, business leaders, lawyers and public relations firms responsible for their complicity in knowingly perpetuating these injustices. We must teach ourselves a better understanding of the rampant theft that continues to sap our country dry of its culture, its wealth and the dignity of its people.
A man takes a loaf of bread from a grocery store without payment; he is thrown in jail. This we call justice.
Wal-Mart, one of the world's wealthiest corporations, refuses to pay employees a living wage or provide health benefits; it receives tax benefits from the community. Apple Computer, the worlds wealthiest corporation, uses accounting tricks to deprive its home nation of tax dollars on billions of dollars in revenue and offshores most of its manufacturing; its actions get mentioned briefly in the press and investors and consumers flock to its offerings. State and local governments take land from homeowners and businesses and transfer the development rights to private developers; the developers are given tax breaks, receive revenue at the expense of the community and are lauded by community leaders. Amazon takes advantage of internet tax breaks and part-time workers to build a steamroller retail network that, like Wal-Mart, destroys countless businesses and saps life from communities around the world. Bank of America, Citicorp, J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and a host of other "too big to fail" financial institutions bankrupt the U.S. economy, destroy livelihoods and communities, receive taxpayer bailouts to save their executives and shareholders and the U.S. taxpayer gets nothing in return, and virtually none of the perpetrators are admonished or put on trial much less convicted for their crimes.
Yet pity the destitute who take a loaf of bread from a grocery store without payment to feed themselves or their family; they are thrown in jail. This is justice?
Deception:
Our view of theft is one that metes out the greatest punishment to the lowest-level offenders and usually lets the greatest criminals go free. Yet we pride ourselves on conducting a fair and nuanced system of justice, one that punishes criminals in accordance with the degree of offense. However it is we justify this approach, it is deception.
Reality:
The inequities in our definition and treatment of theft are a national disgrace and deserving of condemnation for their glaring injustice. We routinely arrest, charge, convict and imprison low-level offenders while forgiving the truly large offenders. Consider a few examples:
1. A Wal-Mart employee is fired from her job for advocating union membership while Wal-Mart transfers the expense of providing healthcare benefits to its employees onto the local community, pays below-poverty wages, destroys local businesses in communities already giving it tax breaks and drives U.S. manufacturing jobs offshore into countries where it bribes local officials - yet Wal-Mart executives are not arrested or charged for these thefts of livelihoods, wages, tax breaks and community.
2. A person stealing from an Apple Store is charged with theft - yet not a single Apple executive is arrested or charged for hiding from government its tax liability on billions of dollars in revenues.
3. Bank employees or job candidates at all levels routinely lose their jobs or are denied employment over minor crimes in their distant pasts, unrelated to the 2008 U.S. financial meltdown, on the basis of an overly broad and unjustly imposed government rule attempting to prevent a future economic debacle - yet bank executives are rarely charged for their actual complicity in the economic meltdown of the U.S. economy which cost trillions.
4. Protestors are arrested, jailed and charged for being present at a constitutionally protected rally while the objects of their protest, the large banking corporations that brought down the U.S. economy and cheated millions of their investments, continue to do business as usual with the help of massive U.S. taxpayer-financed bailouts.
Resolution:
It is time we rethink and redefine theft and the penalties for theft. We are a nation that shamefully permits the worst transgressions when committed by business - especially large corporations - yet lower the boom of our wrath on those who are the far lesser threat to our security and wealth. We must hold politicians, business leaders, lawyers and public relations firms responsible for their complicity in knowingly perpetuating these injustices. We must teach ourselves a better understanding of the rampant theft that continues to sap our country dry of its culture, its wealth and the dignity of its people.