Unaccountable

 

These big businesses are so dominant, rich and powerful that governments are reluctant to criticise and regulate them. Corporations also spend a lot of money influencing politics, whether that is through donations,  corrupt lobbying or directly employing politicians.

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Example: Amazon

 

Amazon is one of the richest companies in the world, owned by Jeff Bezos, one of the world’s richest men. It gets away with so much because of its size. 

 

According to Make Amazon Pay, Amazon did not pay any income tax in Europe in 2021, but was paid €1bn in tax credits on €55 billion sales.

 

Most warehouse workers do not earn a living wage. Amazon tries hard to stop trade union activity from forming. This not only keeps wages down, but also reduces the power for employees to demand better working standards or fight for higher safety standards. 

 

There is evidence of Amazon management’s desire to treat their employees as robots. In 2022, an Amazon executive was questioned by MPs in Parliament over the company’s decision to require employees wear trackers to ensure they pack boxes quickly enough.

 

Former staff have also accused the company of severe working conditions of being constantly monitored including having toilet breaks timed. 

 

In the US, a man died while on the production line. His body was barricaded by management and fellow colleagues were required to continue working. This may not be company policy, but indicative of a culture where keeping to daily quotas is more important than human lives.

 

There are also examples of deadly treatment of staff. In 2021, eight workers died at an Amazon warehouse because they were ordered to remain at work despite the factory being in the path of a forthcoming tornado. Workers were not given permission to leave and required to keep working as the tornado ripped through the building. 

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Also in the US, in May 2023, a man died when his dead hit a conveyor belt due to a serious safety breach. The only punishment for Amazon was a $7,000 fine. 

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Outsourcing 

 

Big corporations outsource so much of their business that they can avoid accountability for the horrendous things that happen along their production line. 

 

For example, large chocolate companies such as Nestle and Mars cannot guarantee that cocoa farming does not use slave or child labour.  In fact, it almost certainly does. 

 

Another example is that fast fashion companies such as Boohoo and SHEIN, who subcontract so many aspects of their business, they cannot answer questions about the conditions in factories that manufacture their clothes.

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How the taxpayer supports them

 

Mega corporations, despite their enormous profits, give a tiny fraction of that money back. The tax system rigged, so they pay very little tax on profits. They also benefit from government (i.e tax payer funded) handouts, otherwise known as subsidies.

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Who benefits from these big companies? 

 

The mega corporations that dominate our lives do not benefit society, the planet or their workers.

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But the super-wealthy owners and shareholders benefit. They make so much profit off their unethical practices. Which, consequently, turns to immense political power.

 

Even though those lower earners of big corporations, whose labour is responsible for the majority of the profit, don’t do well in these systems, those at the top do. Big business pay their CEOs an obscene amount. FTSE 100 bosses earn more in three days than the average worker in the UK makes in a year.