Books, plays, documentaries take aim at corporate sins

  • By Eric Zoeckler / Herald Columnist
  • Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:00pm
  • Local News

The arts are taking the opportunity to hit the American corporation when it’s already at an historical low.

In books, film documentaries and even Broadway musicals, corporations are taking a heavy dose of bombardment that’s getting increasing public attention.

Coincidentally, for it could not have been planned, these anticorporation treatises have popped into the public consciousness as real corporate scandals have unfolded before us in the last three years.

While the embarrassment of Enron, World Com, Adelphia and yes, even Boeing (corporate espionage and insider hiring), the Chicago Sun-Times (false circulation figures) and The New York Times (plagiarism and biased reporting on the Bush administration’s claims of banned weapons in Iraq) are based on well-founded fact, much of the art world’s corporation-slamming often is bitingly satirical.

The story line of Australian Max Berry’s novel “Jennifer Government” (Random House, 2004) is so preposterous you could be excused for tossing it into the trash (like a friend did until she remembered she’d borrowed it from me).

Set in the “near future,” the world (except France) is part of the United States, a free-market nirvana where taxes are banned, two competing megacorporations run the world, government is impotent and irrelevant, and the police will investigate crime only if victims’ families pay for the investigation.

So pervasive are corporations that employees take the last name of their company, hence John Nike of that company’s guerrilla marketing department hoodwink a naive underling into agreeing to arrange 10 inner-city street murders to build “street cred” for a new line of $2,500 sneakers that cost the company just 85 cents to make.

Jennifer, a committed consumer watchdog investigator who has a bar code tattooed beneath her right eye, uncovers the plot and launches a global chase of the corporate evildoers.

Despite a double-digit body count by book’s end, the bad guys elude Jennifer, who runs out of funding while a battle ensues between the two corporate armies (Oh, I forgot to tell you there’s no U.S. Army or Navy, for that matter), where Wal-Mart customers must take cover as actual artillery is lobbed store-to-store across town.

Like “Jennifer Government,” the Broadway musical “UrineTown” owes much of its charming innocence to the satirical implausibility of its plot, as well. Also set in the near future, where a prolonged drought has caused all private toilets to be banned, forcing people to pay a monopolistic private company to use one of several public toilets scattered around the city.

Police track down “violators” and banish them to UrineTown. They never return. Meanwhile, the fiendish CEO is busy paying off elected officials to maintain the relentless cash flow into the water company coffers.

Just as you are about to proclaim the absurdity of the story lines comes the sobering powerful documentary “The Corporation.” This 2 1/2 hour film dissects the history, power, abuses and economic successes of the modern corporation.

It focuses on the corporation’s unique legal status as an individual – like you and me – that allows them to buy and sell, make or lose money, to sue and be sued. But when a corporation is sued or criminally indicted, no one person inside it is held responsible because of its legal structure.

With over 40 interviews with noted economists, historians, CEOs and big business critics such as filmmaker Michael Moore, “The Corporation” seeks to explain corporate behaviors while never relinquishing its main contention that corporations exists for one, and only one, reason: to make money for stockholders.

Through a well-organized menu of profiled corporate excesses, the film demonstrates that corporations have effectively few legally imposed limits on who, what or how much they can exploit to generate revenue and profits.

Remember the “outlandish” story lines of “Jennifer Government” and “UrineTown?” While not accusing it of any crime, “The Corporation” details how paperwork found outside of a burned Dominican Republic clothing factory revealed how a Nike contractor paid seamstresses 3 cents to make one T-shirt every 6.8 minutes. That works out to 25 cents an hour for a shirt that would retail for more than $20.

Another story centers on how the World Bank insisted on privatizing the water department of the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, as a condition to finance the rebuilding of its crumbling infrastructure. Water prices soared from nearly nothing to 25 cents for every dollar earned by city residents (about $2 a day). The company also would “own” the rainwater. The people rebelled and ultimately prevailed, although two people were killed and several were injured in the rioting.

The documentary film “Super Size Me” is said to be similar in scope of “The Corporation,” but focusing on the fast-food industry. Reviewers say the film gives ample opportunity to food corporation CEOs to explain why their companies produce so many fat-laden products. I look forward to hearing their answers.

Write Eric Zoeckler at The Herald, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206 or e-mail mrsribe@aol.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

Customers enter and exit the Costco on Dec. 2, 2022, in Lake Stevens. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Costco stores could be impacted by looming truck driver strike threat

Truck drivers who deliver groceries and produce to Costco warehouses… Continue reading

Two Washington State ferries pass along the route between Mukilteo and Clinton as scuba divers swim near the shore Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023, in Mukilteo, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ferry system increases ridership by a half million in 2024

Edmonds-Kingston route remains second-busiest route in the system.

Firefighters respond to a 911 call on July 16, 2024, in Mill Creek. Firefighters from South County Fire, Tulalip Bay Fire Department and Camano Island Fire and Rescue left Wednesday to help fight the LA fires. (Photo provided by South County Fire)
Help is on the way: Snohomish County firefighters en route to LA fires

The Los Angeles wildfires have caused at least 180,000 evacuations. The crews expect to arrive Friday.

x
Edmonds police shooting investigation includes possibility of gang violence

The 18-year-old victim remains in critical condition as of Friday morning.

The Everett Wastewater Treatment Plant along the Snohomish River. Thursday, June 16, 2022 in Everett. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett council approves water, sewer rate increases

The 43% rise in combined water and sewer rates will pay for large infrastructure projects.

Robin Cain with 50 of her marathon medals hanging on a display board she made with her father on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025 in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Running a marathon is hard. She ran one in every state.

Robin Cain, of Lake Stevens, is one of only a few thousand people to ever achieve the feat.

People line up to grab food at the Everett Recovery Cafe on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Coffee, meals and compassion are free at the Everett Recovery Cafe

The free, membership-based day center offers free coffee and meals and more importantly, camaraderie and recovery support.

Devani Padron, left, Daisy Ramos perform during dance class at Mari's Place Monday afternoon in Everett on July 13, 2016. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
Mari’s Place helps children build confidence and design a better future

The Everett-based nonprofit offers free and low-cost classes in art, music, theater and dance for children ages 5 to 14.

The Everett Wastewater Treatment Plant along the Snohomish River on Thursday, June 16, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett water, sewer rates could jump 43% by 2028

The rate hikes would pay for improvements to the city’s sewer infrastructure.

The bond funded new track and field at Northshore Middle School on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 in Bothell, Washington. (Courtesy of Northshore School District)
Northshore School District bond improvements underway

The $425 million bond is funding new track and field complexes, playgrounds and phase one of two school replacements.

Pharmacist Nisha Mathew prepares a Pfizer COVID booster shot for a patient at Bartell Drugs on Broadway on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Everett lawmakers back universal health care bill, introduced in Olympia

Proponents say providing health care for all is a “fundamental human right.” Opponents worry about the cost of implementing it.

Outside of the updated section of Lake Stevens High School on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020 in Lake Stevens, Wa. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lake Stevens, Arlington school measures on Feb. 11 ballot

A bond in Lake Stevens and a levy in Arlington would be used to build new schools.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.