Corporate Crime

Ralph Nadar, an advocate for corporate reform warned us, "We are witnessing the corporate destruction of capitalism in favor of a corporate state". Is he right? Or is he just being dramatic? For decades there has been an epidemic of white collar crimes and corporations have been getting by with a virtual slap on the wrist for the crimes. Sadly, there are many types of corporate deviance and 3 basic reasons as to why it is committed.

Businesses commit deviance against employees all the time by not ensuring a safe environment for them to work in. These companies would rather play the odds and gamble with their employees' lives rather than trimming their profits from implementing a safer environment. The OSHA or Occupational Safety and Health Administration was established in 1970 to prevent hazards in the workplace but unfortunately the government has cut the manning of the organization and the policies are not strictly enforced.

Shockingly so, there is plenty of deviance against consumers to go around, deviance like, dangerous foods, unsafe products, frauds, deceptive advertising, and antitrust violations. All of these are naturally in the name profits. Meat companies have been known to take sour meat, coat it with spices and what not, and then repackage it and put it right back on the shelf for sale. Tobacco companies have been selling unsafe products for years. They know that smoking causes cancer, various other sicknesses, and is highly addictive, yet they eagerly supply it for a huge profit. Fraud runs rampant due to poor government control. Fraud can mostly be found in banking, insurance, real estate, and securities. Then there is deceptive advertising. Companies will exaggerate or down right lie to the consumer to strengthen its profits. For instance, "Nestle makes the very best chocolate", well who says?

Finally, anti-trust violations, which are highly unfair, are when a few companies get together and secretly go in cahoots to keep their prices high. Corporations can also assault one another by preventing new competition making its own way.

Corporations also commit deviance against the federal government. They slyly evade paying taxes through the various "loop holes" that they support by making huge campaign contributions to the various politicians. The politicians are forever loyal for the contributions so they lax the tax laws and enforcement of those laws. Furthermore, companies dangerously pollute the environment. They would much rather dump their waste than pay the expense to have it cleaned up properly. This too is all in the name of money.

Still, there is also deviance in the workplace. You have employees committing petty theft because they feel they need to be compensated for the low salaries they think they are paid. Embezzlement accounts for the large sums of money that are stolen, usually by management. The higher the status in a company, the larger the amount is embezzled. Many professionals act out in deviant ways. For instance, there are doctors that will split large fees with referring doctors, therefore having patients referred for unnecessary and costly procedures. Lawyers are huge culprits for over charging clients because their work in not so tangible, the client has no real idea how much time the lawyer worked on their case. Finally, accountants know how to fix books. They know how not to "bite the hand that feeds them". This means that when they are checking the books, if they find too many discrepancies, they surely will not be asked back to audit.

There are three basic reasons for this deviance in corporate America, greed, power, and weak law enforcement. In our capitalist society, the need to achieve is highly encouraged. This brings out the deviance in higher social class individuals. They either are afraid of losing what strives they have made or they become ultra greedy and feel that they just don't have enough and they need it all. Power and prestige is the second reason for committing these acts. The higher the status is of the individual, the more opportunity they will have in committing the act. Studies have shown that the bigger the company, the more crimes it has committed. And then there is enforcement of laws that are not so enforced. For instance, bank robbers are given almost 3 times the sentence that a bank manager would be given for fraud. White collar crime is not a violent crime so society turns its head.

We have companies becoming multi-national, we have hardworking Americans becoming maimed or killed on the job, consumers are getting sick on repackaged meat, and we have the rich hiding from paying their fair share of the taxes. All of these offenses are naturally in the name of the almighty dollar. So, is Mr. Nadar right? Yes, I think Ralph Nadar is absolutely fair and correct in his assessment of corporate America. The next question is... What are we going to do about it?