Corporate Control of Public Health:Case Study and Call to Action

Martin Donohoe

Am I Stoned?

A 1999 Utah anti-drug pamphlet warns:“Danger signs that your child may

be smoking marijuana include excessive preoccupation with social causes, race relations, and environmental issues”

Corporations Dominate the Global Economy

Almost 6 million corporations

500 companies control 70% of world trade

Corporations Dominate the Global Economy

• 53 of the world’s 100 largest economies are private corporations; 47 are countries

–Wal-Mart is larger than Israel and Greece

The Stock Market

• The top 1% of Americans owns 51% of all stocks, bonds, and mutual fund assets

• Consequences of Differential Stock Ownership–Corporations are answerable to their

shareholders–Governments are answerable (at least in

theory) to their citizens (either through elections or revolutions)

Corporations

• Internalize profits

• Externalize health and environmental costs

Corporate Taxation

• Corporations shouldered over 30% of the nation’s tax burden in 1950 vs. 8% today• Nearly 1/3 of all large U.S.

corporations pay no annual tax

Corporate Taxation

• Big business claims that U.S. corporations pay the highest corporate taxes in the world (35%)

• FALSE: The rate actually paid, after foreign governments get their cuts, money sent to foreign subsidiaries, loopholes, etc. = 2.3% (U.S. Treasury Department)

Corporate Taxation

• 2004: Bush administration offered temporary tax holiday on foreign earnings–$300 billion in profit repatriated• 92% went to dividend payouts, stock

buybacks, and corporate coffers• Only 8% went to R and D, new factories,

and hiring

Reasons for Inadequate Corporate Taxation

• Corporate tax breaks/loopholes

• Corporate welfare

• Cheating and under-payment common

• Offshore tax havens shelter capital

Ugland House, Cayman Islands18,000 Corporations Registered Here

Exorbitant CEO Pay

• CEO salaries up 500% since 1980• The average CEO makes 350-400X the

salary of the average U.S. worker (1960 - 41X)–Mexico 45:1–Britain 25:1–Japan 10:1

Consequences of Corporatization• Rise of the “permatemp”• Expatriation of jobs–Overseas factories often lack adequate

occupational health and safety and environmental standards–Increasing U.S. unemployment

• Decline in labor union membership

Corporate PR Tactics

• Advertising• Astroturf - artificially-created grassroots

coalitions• Greenwash• Corporate front groups• Public relations/ad campaigns

Corporate PR tactics

• Invoke poor people as beneficiaries• Characterize opposition as

“technophobic,” anti-science,” and “against progress”

• Portray their products as environmentally beneficial despite evidence to the contrary

Sponsored Environmental Education Materials (Examples)

International Paper-“Clearcutting promotes growth of trees that require full sunlight and allows efficient site preparation for the next crop”

Exxon’s “Energy Cube”-“Gasoline is simply solar power hidden in decayed matter”-“Offshore drilling creates reefs for fish”

The Media

• 5 corporations control majority of US media (down from 50 in 1983)

• Extensive corporate-media links

Global Warming: Controversial?

• Of 928 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, none were in doubt as to the existence or cause of global warming

• Of 636 articles in the popular press (NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, WSJ), 53% expressed doubt as to the existence (and primary cause) of global warming

Science 2004;306:1686-7(Study covers 1993-2003)

Lobbying

• Over 15,000 full-time lobbyists

• Estimates of return on lobbying range from $28 to $100 for every $1 spent

Lobbying

• Lobbying groups spent 3.5 billion in 2010 (federal lobbying, a record)

• All single issue ideological groups combined (e.g., pro-choice, anti-abortion, feminist and consumer organizations, senior citizens, etc.) = $76 million

U.S. International Non-Cooperation/Isolationism

• Failure to sign or approve:–Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change–Convention on the Rights of the Child–Convention on the Elimination of

Discrimination Against Women

U.S. International Non-Cooperation/Isolationism

• Failure to sign or approve–The Stockholm Convention on

Persistent Organic Pollutants–WHO International Code of Marketing

of Breast Milk Substitutes

Case Study

The alliance between GE Medical Systems and NY-Presbyterian

Hospital

General Electric

• Ranked by Forbes as world’s largest company (based on equal weighting of sales, profits, assets, and market value)

• 2010 net after-tax profits of $14 billion

General Electric

• Makes household appliances, lighting, and medical equipment

• Has built 91 nuclear power plants in 11 countries (including Japan’s troubled Fukushima Daishii reactors)

• Produces jet engines and military hardware

General Electric

• Operates coal-burning power plants–Major releasers of toxic mercury

• Operates a large, highly profitable financial services group

• Owns a multi-billion dollar media empire– Including NBC (49%, Comcast – 51%),

Telemundo, and Universal Studios

GE’s History

• Conducted unethical human subject experiments on prisoners, involving testicular irradiation, from 1940s to 1960s• Intentionally-released excessive radiation

from its Hanford, WA nuclear reactor in the 1980s, to determine how far it would travel

GE’s Record

• Sued radiologist who brought to light dangers of GE’s contrast agent, Omniscan–Causes nephrogenic systemic fibrosis

(FDA black box warning)• Fined for making misleading statements

re other contrast agent

GE’s Record

• America’s largest corporate polluter

• 116 Superfund sites nationwide

• Approximately 13 in NY

GE’s Record

• Between 1947 and 1977, two of its capacitor manufacturing plants dumped 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River–Probable human carcinogens with adverse

effects on liver, kidney, nervous system, and reproductive organs (EPA)–200 mi of Hudson Superfund site

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt

• 2009 compensation = $5.5 million

• Named “World’s Best CEO” in 3 separate Barron’s polls

• 2006 - 2011 - On Board of NY Federal Reserve Bank

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt

• 2008 – Named one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” by TIME Magazine

• 2009 - Appointed by President Obama to his Economic Recovery Board–GE then became eligible, via a loophole, for

¼ of the $340 billion Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (debt support)

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt

• 2011 - Appointed by Obama as Chair of his outside panel of Economic Advisors and of his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness

• On the board of directors of “The Robin Hood Foundation”!

GE’s Record

• Has eliminated 150,000 jobs in last 15 years• One of nation’s top out-sourcers of jobs• Cited by Human Rights Watch for “systematic

workers’ rights violations” in the U.S. and abroad

• Extensive record of tax violations, military procurement fraud

GE’s Record

• Named “America’s Most Admired Company” by Forbes• Named one of the “World’s Most

Respected Companies” in polls conducted by Barron’s and The Financial Times

The Agreement between GE Medical Systems and NY-Presbyterian Hospital (2003)

• Provides GE with financial incentives to promote high technology purchases

• Hospital prohibited from purchasing more effective equipment from other companies

Concerns About the Agreement

• Augments trend in academic medical centers to promote the use of expensive, high-technology care at expense of preventive care and public health measures–Highly reimbursable– Services may be redundant in certain

locations

Concerns About the Agreement

• Patients with developmental anomalies and cancers caused by GE’s pollution diagnosed with GE scanners and treated with GE-manufactured therapeutic devices, increasing GE’s profit

A macabre twist on “cradle to grave care”

Solutions

• NY-P should cancel agreement• Health care providers and organizations

should condemn this alliance• Medical and ethical organizations should

develop standards regarding future agreements

Primo Levi

“A country is considered the more civilized the more the wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder a weak man from becoming too weak or a powerful one too powerful.”

Solutions

• Living wage laws• Restructure tax system• Punish corporate scofflaws with large

fines and jail time• Increase enforcement budgets to combat

corporate crime

Solutions

• Eliminate confidential legal settlements relevant to public health and safety

• Work with corporations–Healthy PR–Shareholder activism–Risks/benefits

Solutions: Vote

US voter turnout lowWealthy vote at almost twice rate of

poorWhites > Blacks > HispanicsOld > YoungProperty owners > RentersPhysicians < general population

Solutions: Fair, Representative Elections

• Publicly financed campaigns and campaign finance reform

• Open debates, free air time for candidates

• Proportional representation• Instant runoff voting/cumulative

voting/range (rating) voting

Solutions•Activism / Letter writing /

Protesting / Whistleblowing• Join community groups – become

involved in local as well as national issues• Lobby legislators• Run for office

Solutions

• Increase funding of public education

• Independent scientific review of school curricula

• Prohibit use of sponsored curricula

Solutions

• Establish safeguards relevant to corporate involvement in academic research

• Higher standards of journalism

• Support alternative media

Solutions

• Augment and improve international aid package

• Sign, ratify, and adhere to major international treaties

Solutions

• Based on Precautionary Principle• Recognize nature’s net worth• Calculate economic prosperity based on

Genuine Progress Index or Global Happiness Index, rather than Gross Domestic Product

• “All men are created equal”–Declaration of Independence

• “Some people are more equal than others”–George Orwell

Hudson River, 2009

Günter Grass

“The first job of a citizen is to keep your mouth open.”

Anita Roddick

"If you think you are too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in your tent"

Contact Information and References

Public Health and Social Justice Website

http://www.publichealthandsocialjustice.org

http://www.phsj.orgmartindonohoe@phsj.org