The massive amount of donations handed out by ADM makes them look like a very generous corporation. What’s misleading about ADM’s generosity is how much they benefit from the political organizations that receive the majority of ADM’s donations. Resulting in ADM receiving such large amounts of corporate welfare leaving middle class citizens pay the bill (Bovard, 1995).
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ADM is one of thousands of corporations that receive corporate welfare. State and local governments across the country indulge in corporate welfare practices routinely. Many giving corporations funds to relocate to a different city or building giving them tax credits to hire new employees and money for training and supply purposes. Usually the subsidy per job doesn’t add up. For example, In 1997 Pennsylvania gave 307 million in economic incentives to Kvaerner ASA, a Norwegian global engineering and construction company, to open a shipyard at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and employ 950 people. The subsidy for each job is three hundred and twenty three thousand dollars. If each employee is paid fifty thousand dollars annually amounting to each employee paying sixty seven hundred dollars in local and state taxes, it will take a half-century of tax collections from each individual to earn back the money granted to create his or her job (Barlett & Steele, 1998).
The federal government hands out approximately $125 billion a year in corporate welfare and in the 90’s alone corporate profits have totaled $45 trillion. That’s equal to the cumulative paychecks for 50 million working Americans who earned less than 25,000 a year, for those eight years. Funds mostly offered in subsidies, grants, real estate, low-interest loans and government services corporate welfare continues to grow in our society and citizens continue to suffer through reduced wages, higher taxes, and inflated prices (Barlett & Steele, 1998).
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Consumption
America consumes more economically than any other country in the world. Intense advertising campaigns, technology and ease of acquiring credit have enabled
Americans to purchase goods with little or no restrictions. Instead of paying cash for goods, consumers pay minimal monthly installments for an extended period of time. Practices of this nature are extremely common in the US allowing consumers to purchase goods they can’t afford and in-turn allowing corporations to increase profits due to accumulated interest (Ritzer, 1999).
A very significant tool in keeping consumers consuming is credit cards. Luring people into consumption by easy credit and then entice them into still further consumption by offers of “payment holidays,” new cards, and increased credit limits. What comes from this is consumer’s future income being captured as credit card or other consumer debt. Allowing banks and credit card manufacturers to cash in on the rising debt by growing income on servicing the debt. Although, credit cards give people purchasing power, consumers likeliness of creating debt is also increased the more they consume. Also, banks now have vested interest in getting consumers to spend instead of save. In 1997 Americans received 3.1 billion pieces of mail imploring them to sign up for a credit card (Ritzer, 1999).
During the 1990’s the total value of all outstanding household debt reached unprecedented highs in the United States last year, for the first time exceeding 100 percent of the total disposable income of all households. “As far as the wealth of typical
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households is concerned, the real story of the 1990’s was not the stock market boom, but the debt explosion,” (Bjorhus, 2000). "The financial boom we're living in is partly
financed by debt and so when that debt comes due or unemployment starts to rise again, that bubble could burst and could make the downturn worse than it otherwise could have
been," (Schmidt, 2000). Such data hint at some of the causes of high debt levels in the United States, said Robert Manning, author of the forthcoming book "Credit Card Nation: The Social Consequences of America's Addiction to Credit." He argues that more and more people are working part-time and temporary jobs, using credit to fill the gaps.
Other factors have driven the boom, too. Credit has simply been easier and easier to get. Low interest rates in the 1990s made borrowing even more attractive. Consumers have demanded more too as cultural attitudes against taking on debt have relaxed. The problem with debt is that it can't grow faster than income indefinitely (Bjorhus, 2000).
America is increasingly characterized by the term hyper consumption; Citing the obsessive nature American’s display while consuming. For instance, Americans spend three or four times as much time shopping as Western Europeans. Also, of the total land area of the United States, about 4 billion square feet is devoted to shopping centers, which works out to sixteen square feet of shopping area per capita. “The average American is consuming, in total, more than twice as much as he or she did forty years ago” (Schor, 2000). On a per capita basis, Americans are apt to consume more of virtually everything than people in most, if not all, other nations of the world. Examples include television sets, VCRs, computers, microwave ovens, automobiles and the energy
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needed to keep them running. Americans are the world leaders in the consumption of medical, psychiatric, legal, and accounting services. It is not just that they consume more of everything but more varieties of most things are available to, and used, American consumers than those of most other nations.
To take just on example, the number of toys on the shelves of K-Bee toys often stuns visitors to the United States. While visitors may be surprised at America’s high level of
consumption, the influence the US has on the world causes consumption to trickle onto foreign soil. Demonstrating the world’s vulnerability to hyper consumption (Ritzer, 1999).
Global Capitalism
In an attempt to maximize profits corporations have set up production in foreign countries. Thus, allowing them to produce goods at a marginal price while paying employees sweat shop wages. Also, as companies such as McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Nike and others take their marketplaces global they promote American Culture. Reflecting American traits such as consumption, winning, speed, and wealth. Although, global capitalism enables our economy to further thrive and creates jobs, it also has serious repercussions (Newcomb, 1999).
Global Capitalism presents a “profound threat” to indigenous cultural products and practices of countries around the world. Secondly, it has an effect on the utilization of natural and human resources and contributes to the degradation of the environment. A
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citizen of the Czech republic voices his disgust of American presence in his hometown saying,
I've lived in the Czech Republic for the past four years and I've seen with my own eyes the displacement of Czech culture by shit from the US. My Czech wife and I used to eat breakfast every morning at a traditional milk bar on Brno's town square until it was replaced by a McDonald's. You should understand though that
the 'natives' bring this upon themselves often times... Brno's town hall has been wooing McDonald's ever since I moved here. Czechs, in general, think the more American cultural presence here, the more it indicates that the Czech Republic has become a part of the West... My son attends a nursery school in our
neighborhood. One neighbor told us that she would send her child to a different nursery because our son's school didn't have enough Barbie dolls and other western toys (Bowyer, 1995).
American products and business can be found all over the world. Shopping Malls, department stores such as Wal-Mart and Baskin Robbins etc. England serves as a good example, their current society largely has adopted many “western traits”.
But it is the latest American-bred addition to this shopping tract that has brought national attention to modest West Thurrock: “Costco arrived here late last year, opening the first warehouse membership club in Britain amid an onslaught of media fanfare.” Not satisfied, a large factory outlet developer is looking into various sites in England, largely because its American tenants such as Nike and the Gap see European expansion as key to their continued growth. For their part, the English are attracted to the American discounters for a very good reason-the high cost of American products in England (Kaye, 1994).
There was a time when American production was the envy of countries like England and the rest of the world, expressing an eagerness to emulate its structures and methods. Today, it is more America’s means of consumption that virtually every nation around the world despises (Ritzer, 1999).
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In Juarez, Mexico, American factories known as “maquilas” create many jobs for locals. Producing American goods for approximately 40 dollars a week for five and half days of labor. Forcing them to live on sweatshop wages in a place that experience first
world prices. Running water is rare, as is electricity unless it’s stolen from power lines. Tarpaper huts and blockhouses cover the landscape of Juarez and many are hungry and poor. What’s so shocking about Juarez is that fact that the unemployment rate is less than one percent, but experiences an abundance of poverty. Unfortunately, Juarez is just one of thousands of cities that have suffered from global capitalism. Cities in places such as Africa and Asia have been exploited by American corporations for decades, causing many to suffer while few prosper (Bowden, 1999).
Summary
Who’s to blame for the many economic problems created by our society? Is it the government or corporations? Regardless, the US’s economic system creates turmoil in our society and in all cases the victims are middle and lower class working citizens and the beneficiaries are corporate executives and politicians.
The western culture that citizens of America represent is resented by many foreign cultures. In many instances the resentment is justifiable due to the disregard of
foreign culture and tradition. The uniqueness of foreign cultures and years of built tradition are in many cases lost amidst the impact of global westernization. Thus, displaying
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America’s “greed” to acquire maximum yield at all cost. If America continues to expand global capitalism, influencing the world by our western culture, small cultures that have been shaped over centuries, will ultimately suffer.
The American government should address these issues, shifting interest from money and financial benefit to the liveliness of cultures across the world. People shouldn’t be taken advantage of performing arduous labor intensive tasks for wages well below minimum wage. Our government has allowed corporations to take advantage of this outlet for decades with no restrictions. People across the world suffer because of our economical tactics but the mood that is presented by American’s is one of success, power, and dominance.
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References
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Bjorhus J. (2000). Americans Debt growing As Fast as Income. Retrieved March 8,
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Bowden C. (1999). I Wanna Dance With The Strawberry Girl. New York, NY:
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Bovard J. (1995). Policy Analysis. Archer Daniels Midland: A Case Study In corporate
Welfare. Retrieved on February 4, 2003 from
Common Cause. (1995). Common Cause Urges Senate To Act To End Corporate
Welfare. Retrieved on February 4, 2003 from
Engardio P. (2001). Global Capitalism: Can It Be Made To Work Better.
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Geider W. (1997). One World, Ready Or Not; The Manic Logic Of Global Capitalism.
New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
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Consumption. Pp. 28-52. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press.