Did you hear about the peanut company CEO sentenced to 28 years in prison? What was the crime? His company is directly linked to the death of nine (9) people. Apparently he, that is, his company and his executive decisions within the company, is guilty of poisoning them with salmonella.
He and his family pleaded for mercy, leniency in sentencing. To them, the thought of even considering the death penalty was excessive. Yet, nine people are dead because of his executive decisions as then CEO of Peanut Corporation of American based in Georgia.
Excessive? How is it that a robbery gone wrong, such as, for example, a street thug waving a gun to rob a local liquor-store in inner-city USA and ends up shooting and killing the store’s attendant, readily gets the severest of penalties with no argument while a CEO who is responsible for the death of nine people believes with all his heart that he deserves leniency? After all, the motive between the two crimes is exactly the same: money!
It is believed that he knew. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew that he was cheating and lying and putting peoples’ lives in jeopardy and all for what, for money, to avoid loss, to keep up profit. It was a so-called “white-collar” crime, but still a crime nevertheless.
We stereo-type and generally assume that the “bad guy” is black or brown or Muslim, inner-city, poor, uneducated, and addicted. Thus, we give little thought to the more egregious crimes of secrecy, duplicity, and fraudulency happening daily in our high rise executive offices.
You may balk at this thought, but bankers, lawyers, industrialists, and CEO’s of any number of companies can also be guilty of murder, rape, and thuggery. Sure, they may not directly use guns and knives and chains or brass knuckles, but given their flagrant exercise of power, privilege and position, their executive decisions can and do cause harm—even to the point of causing death to others. And the thing about it is that it is far easier for them to get-away-with-it.
Stewart Parnell is the gentleman in question, the once CEO of Peanut Corporation of America. He is quoted to have said: “This has been a seven-year nightmare for me and my family. I’m truly, truly, sorry for what’s happened.” It’s good that he is sorry. He should be. Still, I can’t help but wonder, would he have been sorry if he had never been caught and prosecuted, given the knowledge that nine people still lost their lives because of his greed (keeping company profits up by refusing to recall bad peanut butter from the market place)?
And then there is the Volkswagen scandal. You have also heard of that one, I’m sure. Here again the CEO is extremely sorry and apologizes profusely. Again, I have to ask, is it because the company was caught? Why did the company do this in the first place? (The company rigged millions of vehicles around the world to cheat on emissions testing so that they appeared to be in compliance with emissions controls when they actually were not.)
More white collar crime and more harm done. This harm is indirect and subtle, falling under the radar screen of detection, almost impossible to directly link its cause and effect to any harm done, but it is still harm done nevertheless! And that’s what we’ve got to realize. Indeed, because of its very nature—subtle, indirect, almost impossible to link to direct harm—I have no doubt that white collar crime is more dangerous and does more harm than common street thug crime, because it affects many, many more people.
This is why it is dangerous to allow companies and corporations to become “too big to fail.” This is also why it is irresponsible to legally deem corporations as persons. Why? It is irresponsible because real people can too easily hide behind the façade of corporate personhood and avoid personal responsibility themselves, blaming the corporation. Yet, how does one prosecute a corporation for murder? How do you arrest and incarcerate a corporation?
We have given too much power and control to corporate America. And this has resulted, if I may generalize here, in the raping of our lands and the polluting of our air, etc. etc. while they claim to be bettering America. Of course it’s our fault for believing this to be the case. Yet, how much unseen and undetected crime is being committed? No, I’m not saying that all of corporate America is guilty or untrustworthy. But I am saying that we over trust them and have put too much blind faith in big business and in corporate America in general.
The trouble is that our real American value system can be reduced to one thing: profit and consumption! Greed is good! As long as corporations employ us and pay us high dividends for our investments, we pat them on the back and congratulate them on a job well done. It’s only the bottom line that really counts. It’s all about the money. Corporate profit is always good, often making us turn a blind eye as to its means and methods for obtaining said profit. This is a big reason why our nation is in trouble and why we have CEO’s that do in fact lie or cheat and steal from us while we remain clueless. One has to wonder, for every Volkswagen or Peanut Corporation of America that is caught, how many corporate deceptions go undetected and scot-free or are just ignored?
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