GEtting away with it

Taxes have always been a part of all successful civilizations. It is the way the governments get funding. And when somebody doesn't pay their taxes, they are breaking the law. This is called tax evasion and it happens all of the time. People just don't pay taxes for different reasons and more often than not, they get caught and prosecuted. But how often do corporations do this? You would think not that often since they usually have millions of dollars to their names and need to stay operational. It just doesn't make since for them not to pay their taxes. Except for one reason, their taxes often cost millions of dollars every year. So corporations have increasingly been not paying their taxes. That is what GE is doing. Except what GE is doing is somehow actually legal. GE made over 5.3 billion dollars in profit last year and yet they still don't have to pay taxes. In fact, it is actually owed 3.2 billion dollars by the government! This is possible because it has hired a skilled army of tax experts and lobbyists. This is just unbelievable. I don't care how rich you are or how many experts you have under your belt, if you make a one year profit of over 5.3 billion dollars, you should have to pay taxes or do like other billionaires do and donate so much money that you don’t have to pay taxes. GE has reportedly stated that the 3.2 billion dollars that the government owes them will be given right back to the U.S. Treasury department.

Photograph. Gorillarms.com. 27 Mar. 2011. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <http://gorillarms.com/gramsisgeometry/?cat=7>.

Ecuador v. Chevron: You decide

Since the earyly '70s, America has become more enlighted about its harm to the environment than at any other time before. Years of environmental research led to claims of ground and air pollution which then helped cast many new environmental laws we live by today. These laws were past because people and corporations were not taking care of the environment and it was begining to cause problems. Problems with air quality and even water quality. One prime example of a corporation taking advantage of the environment and ruining the lives of thousands of people is Chevron, an American multinational energy corporation. In 1993, Chevron was in a class action law-suit from over 30,000 Ecuadorians. It was being accused of poisoning the land, for over 20 years, by dumping millions of gallons of oil-tainted water in Ecuadors creeks and streams. To help avoid harm, Chevron had the case thrown out saying that the law suit should be litigated in Ecuador, closer to where the alleged crimes occured. Now, however, Chevron could be in big trouble. The court case that was moved to Ecuador is going badly for the corporation and Chevron may be liable to pay over 7 billion dollars. In an attempt to clear itself of any law-suits, Chevron spent around 40 million dollars to clean up part of its toxic waste delima. This did not fly well with the Ecuadorian government whenever it found out that this did not cover any of the third party claims, which consist of the 30,000 Ecuadorians suing Chevron in court now.

Chevwrong. Photograph. Chevwrong. Uprisingradio.org. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=8074>.

Frying The Environment

Most everybody enjoys going to mcdonalds and getting a burger and fries. But do you ever stop to think about where those tasty, golden fries come from? Most people don't really stop to think about it. But then again the E.P.A. isn't most people. According to the E.P.A., the "Simplot factory was the main source of a potentially deadly amount of phosphorus dumped into the Portneuf River"(Hurt 4). All this waste that is dumped into the Portneuf River is from the over 3 billion pounds of fries, produced annually, nonedible scraps. These scraps inlude phosphate, phosphorus, and nitrate compounds (Hurt 4).
These scraps actually would do no harm to humans if they were properly stored in barrels and containers. But if they were, then I wouldn't be blogging about it right now. Instead, Simplot has been placing its waste by-products from its fertilizer company in unlined stockpiles which have contaminatied surrounding groundwater and the local Porneuf River (Hurt 4).

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that what Simplot is doing is wrong for the environment, the wildlife, and the local people. I think this is beyond the level of slaping Simplot on the wrists and giving them a fine. I think immediat action needs to be taken involving a notice that all environmentally dangerous opertions must sece and assist or else the plant will be shut down within a preset date. How is it that we talk about other countries needing to change their environmental strategies and yet we can't even clean up our own backyard? Chances are that forcful action wont be taken but it does need special attention from the E.P.A. and more important, the public.

Hurt, Harry. "10 Worst Corporate Polluters." Portfolio.Com: News & Views On Business And Entrepreneurship - Portfolio.com. 19 Feb. 2008. Web. 07 Apr. 2011. <http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/02/19/10-Worst-Corporate-Polluters#ixzz1ItSJFbe4>.

Wal-Marts: Sometimes Equal Rights, Always

At any given time in today's media, you might hear about Wal-Marts current class action lawsuit that is being held against them in the supreme court. Wal-Mart has been allegedly discriminating women in the workplace. not offering the women pay raises and promotion opportunities. You might wonder why Wal-Mart would do such a thing like this. I feel they do this because they honestly believe that they can get away with such actions. And why not, the current lawsuit against them that is currently in the Supreme Court has taken over ten years to process. According to plaintiff Edith Arana on what keeps the women going on in this fight against the corporate giant, "I know what happened to me and it's not just me. The women of this lawsuit are the poster children for the all the women who couldn't do this, and they each have families and names and faces."

To Me, this whole issue should never have started in the first place. Thanks to the Equal Rights Amendment which passed in 1923, all men and woman are given equal rights in all aspects of life, including the workplace. This lawsuit will not only determine if Wal-Mart has discrimination against Edith Arana, but also an entire class of workers. Wal-Mart should never have gone so far to try to discriminate against these woman. Hopefully now they will pay the price for doing so in this supreme court class action lawsuit

Corporations Providing For The Little Guy

With the employment rate the way it is today people are desperately searching for a new job. However new jobs aren't always there to be taken. But in some countries new jobs have been steadily coming in for decades. These jobs are often brought to the poorer, less economically strong countries in the form of sweatshops. BUT WAIT! Aren't sweatshops bad? Don't they pay way to little to be considered livable wages? We'll in a way yes, but no. Yes they aren't typically safe environments to work in. They have countless flaws but they do bring in one heavy pro to a sea of cons. They bring in money for the poor. The people that take these jobs in these filthy factories are typically poorer than even the Americas poorest could imagine. When these new factories are opened up they provide the workers with money, something that many of which have lived with very little of. When giving these poor people money, it not only helps them, but it also helps the countries economy in which they are based in. Giving economic support in turn helps not only the countries economy but the world economy. This allows for more goods to be moved around and purchased and provided new relationships with other countries economic structure. So when ever you hear about a new corporation being found to have sweatshops provided much of its goods to be sold in America, just remember, yes they do often work in harsh conditions. But these sweatshops have helped provide that country and its people with a better economy.

The Cancer of America

It was one week ago from today that I found out that my grandmother has cancer. When I got the news an overwhelming feeling came over me and I immediately wept. In the middle of hundreds of students I couldn't even hold back the flowing tears or control my shaky voice while on the phone with my mother. In fact just typing this down on this keyboard, for me, is a battle in itself. But not near the battle that my grandmother with be facing as she fights to get rid of her deadly disease. Soon after I found out that right after she left the doctors office my grandmother went straight to work. After hearing this I was in absolute aw. How could you manage to pull yourself together enought to go back to work. Then it made me wonder and I came to the conclusion that she isn't just ignoring the fact that she has cancer, but that she wants to continue the life that she is living and won't let her cancer get in the way. In a sort of paradoxical way, I decided that I should blog about how America is like a healthy body and some corporations are like the cancer that weaken that body.

Since its establishment, America has become a growing body. America has become a world leader in trade and commerce, as well as establishing foreign aid and democracy. But as many bodies go through their development, they produce a few bad cells, or business. And as these bodies continue to develop, these bad cells continue to grow as well, until they are large enough to be considered a possible threat to the very life of the body, in the same way that these businesses begin to grow larger and larger, they reach the status of a corporation. These corporations begin to put a drain on the countries economy and weaken it until the country eventually collapses. These actions have proven to be very deadly as the large banks drained more and more money until the country couldn't hold up any more and America plunged into a great depression. Now it seems as if history is repeating itself in a new form of cancer. These corporations keep growing just as cancer is always spreading throughout the body, and it's giving nothing back. So now its time to fight back, to fight back against these deadly diseases that plague our body and go through treatments of therapy, and in terms of Americas economy pass new laws that give less power to these corporate giants and stand up for small businesses and give them the breaks that they deserve. These corporations have hurt our body of America for way to long and actions have to be taken now, with deep consideration of what might come if we do nothing. I just hope that action is taken soon, before its to late.

Wal-Mart: Economic Destruction For Low Prices, Always!

Everybody has heard of the corporate giant known as Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has always offered low prices to all of its shoppers. They have become an iconic American shopping place due to the abundance of groceries, electronics, clothing, and personal healthcare products. But, Wal-Mart has began to receive a new negative light over the last few years. Over the past several decades, it has become painfully obvious what Wal-Mart has been doing to the economy. Wal-Mart is very widely known for being very inexpensive. But another thing they are cheap towards is the health insurance they provide to their workers, or should I say the lack there of. What Wal-Mart does is set their employees hours to the maximum they can without having to provide health insurance. They manage this by only hiring part-time employees and then just replacing them with other part-time employees. Another thing that Wal-Mart is helping to replace is small local business. These stores, also known as "Mom and Pop stores", just can't compete with Wal-Mart’s pressuring low prices and often have to sell out and close down forever. These are the types of stores that have been around for decades, often providing our great-grandparents with the everyday supplies they needed. I feel that Wal-Mart is to damaging for our own good. However, it is the most popular shopping center for a reason, its driving low prices and sheer size and quantity is to much to compete with and in most cases, you can depend on a local Wal-Mart to be open twenty-four/seven or at least most hours of the day. That’s why I just don’t see Wal-Mart going away anytime soon.