Corporations, advertising, the wage gap

We are in a time where corporations have an unprecedented amount of power. Fortunately, there are many organizations who are making this knowledge available to the public. (Corporate Watch and a group that reports on corporate welfare come to mind--see our links page for more). We encourage you to learn more about the enormous and growing wage gap between executives and workers as well as the many human rights violations committed in the service of profit. You can help by directing your support and consumer dollars toward socially responsible businesses that support your values.

Richard L. Grossman has written a worthwhile article called Ending Corporate Governance: Revoking Our Plutocracy, which should give you a good starting point. Plutocracy is defined as "government by the wealthy". There are also many books that can give you a closer look at what's going on with "globalizing" and how corporations are wielding their power internationally; see David Korten's When Corporations Rule the World, Michael Hudson's Merchants of Misery: How Corporate America Benefits from Poverty (and our book recommendations page) for more.

And last but definitely not least, don't miss Eleven Inherent Rules of Corporate Behavior by Jerry Mander. It's one of the most eye-opening texts we've ever read.

"A corporation is a legal fiction designed to allow business people to avoid personal responsibility for their actions."
- The Rev. Daniel C. Leonard, Ex-Corporations Clerk

CORPORATION, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary