|
Turning the Tide
How to Reclaim Our Lives from Corporate Control,
One Small, Simple Step at a Time
From Hope Magazine, Summer 2000
Lane Fisher: Assistant Editor, Hope Magazine:
How would you summarize the influence of corporations in our lives?
Ellen Augustine Schwartz: I want to start by explaining what I mean by corporations. I'm talking about multinational companies, not small and medium sized business. Over the past years they have assumed an undue influence over our lives, determining both the content of our media by their advertising dollars, and even which candidates rise to the top with their enormous political contributions. They readily outsource jobs and cut the health care benefits of those jobs which remain here because bottom line profit is their main consideration.
Whether one works for corporate America or not, we're all affected by the corporate agenda: the revved up pace of life, the razor-sharp competition, the discounting of everything a profit can't be made from, the impossible images of beauty that young girls are prompted to emulate, and government that's responsive primarily to big money.
LF You write about another effect—that in our society we've “made comfort a premier value and created enough distractions to suppress consciousness forever.” Can you explain the issue?
EAS We all need a degree of comfort—a secure job, a nice life, good times with friends. But when we are only concerned with creating our own financial security or personal happiness, it just doesn't work. A voice deep inside us cries out for balance, urging us to do something for our community or the earth.
Corporate advertising says, “Make yourself happy, buy this product, and you'll feel great.” Yet there comes a point no matter how many vacations and new clothes and gourmet meals we throw into that gaping hole, they don't fill it. If we become more balanced, focused, and more content with ourselves, then we don't need all the products that are hyped day and night.
LF As for distractions, why are televisions turned on 35 to 40 hours a week in the average American household?
EAS Partly because the work world makes us feel like we've got to be up on the latest news, the latest technology. A larger part, though, is that we are so fried from the stresses of our work lives that we don't have the energy at the end of the day to look into what would really nurture us. We simply sink into the sofa and reach for the remote control. Such distractions are really taking us away from what we want the most: a deeper connection with other people and with our own inner selves, and a sense that we are part of something bigger.
LF One way you suggest that we can influence corporate conduct is to buy stock in companies whose decisions concern us. But if 90% of all stock in America is owned by the wealthiest 10 percent of households, don't they control the outcome of corporate votes?
EAS They do, but regular people can make an impact through their organiations or churches that buy stock. These institutions can work with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. The Center tracks the shareholder resolutions in a hundred corporations. Initially, when shareholder resolutions called for companies to pay workers a living wage or to look at how products could use less toxic chemicals, those types of resolutions got 2 or 3 percent of the vote; now they're getting 8 to 10 percent. Corporations are starting to realize they'll need to take these issues into account. Exxon started its Save the Tiger Fund because of one shareholder who protested that they used the tiger’s image but were doing nothing in real life to save the endangered animal.
Another way you can affect corporations is to write a supportive letter, either yourself, or with coworkers or friends, when a corporation does something consistent with your values. Write the CEO (a librarian can help you get the name and address). Believe me, when CEOs get a few letters they tune in, because they know for every person who takes the time to write, there are a thousand more who feel the same way.
LF You write that in the 1950s, corporations provided 39% of the tax base, but by the last decade, it was down to 10%. At the same time, CEO salaries have skyrocketed to more than 400% times the average worker. In light of such trends, what are other things we can do to hold our corporations accountable?
EAS Gathering information is a first step. United for a Fair Economy out of Boston publishes a quarterly newsletter called Too Much. It gives the most recent news about corporate windfalls and CEO compensation. People can read up on this, remember two or three points that touch them most deeply, and talk to their friends.
Taking action is simple. Ask your friends if they're aware that the CEO of GAP, Millard Drexler, made $41,000 an hour last year. The young women in Honduras who make the clothes for GAP work fourteen hour days for fifty cents an hour. Then you could each call and say, “I like your clothes, but I'd feel a lot better about buying them if I knew that the women who made them earned a living wage. I wouldn't mind paying a little more, but it could also come out of Millard Drexler’s salary.” It's so easy, and you are also making a difference.
LF You quoted Edward Abbey as saying, “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell.” But the American Dream is about growth. Do you think we're ready to relinquish it?
EAS The great thing is that we don't have to relinquish the American Dream. Amory Lovins, the physicist who started the Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado, has proof positive that we have all the technologies now to maintain our standard of living while using half the resources. We can live lightly on the earth and share these technologies with people in other countries. We don't have to grow in ways that compromise our air, our water, our planet.
Our very way of life is the problem now, not just the carcinogenic chemical releases that make it into the headlines. It's our way of life that says its normal to buy toxic chemicals for cleaning rather than using baking soda for scrubbing pots and the tub, and vinegar to wash windows. It's our way of life that says to be happy we've got to buy the latest CDs and, when our CD player breaks, toss it since fixing it would be more than half the cost of buying a new one. It's our way of life that is filling our dumps with toxins that leak into our air and water. We can make choices that will keep us having a better lifestyle—for example, walking or riding our bikes to get a loaf of bread rather than jumping in our cars. We can still have clean homes by using earth-friendly alternatives, and we can insist that energy efficiency be brought into our production processes.
LF One place in our life where the global economy is highly evident is the supermarket. What are some implications of our choices there?
EAS The out-of-season fruits and vegetables that flood our supermarkets in winter are an example of a commodity that takes a toll on the third world. Peasants grow food for their families on small subsistence farms. If they fail to make a mortgage payment because they had to choose between buying medicine for a sick child or paying the mortgage, they lose their land. Wealthy landowners who grow crops for export snatch up the land and then pay starvation wages to the laborers—so buying out-of-season produce benefits the wealthy landowners and an economic system that exploits peasants.
In addition, there's a strong likelihood that out-of-season produce has high doses of toxic pesticides on it. When a chemical is banned in this country, our multinational corporations keep selling those profitable chemicals to Third World countries. To make matters worse, the labels may not be in the language of that country, so pesticides are often used in larger quantities than manufacturers recommend. By the way, you can't wash pesticides off fruits and vegetables. The pesticide contains an adhesive, and its sprayed on the plant from flower to harvest. Buying organic, in-season produce is best for the Earth, ourselves, and the people who work so hard to grow our food.
LF Could you make three simple suggestions for someone who has little time but wants to reduce corporate impact on our lives?
EAS First, buy locally from small shop owners rather than from big chains. Then your money stays in the community with people who pay rent and buy food and clothes here, rather than going toward megamillion salaries for corporate CEOs.
Second, write a short letter to the editor of your paper about an issue you feel passionate about. This is a great way to stimulate thinking about the common good, because after the headlines, the letters section is the second most widely read.
Third, turn off your TV and computer two or three nights a week. You'll be amazed by the amount of time that opens up to you.
LF How did you begin feeling that you could make a difference in the larger scheme?
EAS It started in high school. My social science teacher, Sister Thomas Claire, had a great heart and mind, and she awakened me to the plight of migrant farm workers. I became aware that by simple acts such as not buying grapes during the boycott or standing in front of the supermarket giving out flyers telling people about the pesticides on grapes, I could make a difference in farm workers’ lives. That's when I realized that one person is a powerful force.
Gandhi said that almost anything we do will seem insignificant, but it is most important that we do it. I truly believe that when we are committed to doing our one thing, it is enough. We're not in charge of the big picture. If we just take the one or two steps that our hearts are calling us to take and have faith that other people are awakening and taking their one or two steps, whether they have ten minutes or ten hours a month, we will see a major change.
You know, physicists talk about a critical mass. The critical mass for change is only five percent. If five of every hundred people get passionately concerned about doing something for the good of the whole, it will turn the tides.
Want To Do More?
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
www.iccr.org
(212) 870-2295
GAP
(800) 333-7899
United for a Fair Economy
www.faireconomy.org
(617) 423-2148
Rocky Mountain Institute
www.rmi.org
(970) 927-3851
Top of Page
Home
Copyright © 2006 Ellen Augustine
Web development by Poulson Gluck Design
|
