Neoliberalism

In his book Profit Over People Noam Chomsky examines the dominant global political and economical trend - neoliberalism. Chomsky refers to this term as a doctrinal system of principles also known as the "Washington consensus". Chomsky defines it as "an array of market oriented principles designed by the government of the United States and the international financial institutions [...] and implemented by them in various ways - for the more vulnerable societies" (Chomsky 19). In other words, private interests of a small group of people are permitted to control the social life of masses in order to maximize their personal profit, "leaving the majority of people in misery" (Chomsky 27). Even if that small group is in one country, and the masses are in another one.

Chomsky also underlines that although this is the issue "of a great human significance", it is "not very well understood" (Chomsky 19). The term "neoliberalism" is largely unknown and unused, especially in the United States where it is characterized as free market policies. Which is interesting, considering the fact that the United States is the dominant power in that new global order.

Corporate personhood

Imagine taking a trip to Washington, D.C. in about 15 years to show your child the original hand written and signed Constitution of the United States. But when you look at it you see that the very first words We the People were "corrected" into the words We the Corporations. Well, that's what you may expect in the nearest future as the Supreme Court has decided that corporations are given the same constitutional rights as the people. Corporations are now people. Or "transnational superpersons", as Thom Hartmann described them in his book Unequal Protection.

Hartmann examines the 1886 Supreme Court case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co. That case can be considered historical as a Court decision resulted in the “initial grant of “personhood” under the Fourteenth Amendment to corporations” (Hartmann 167). But the Court had never stated that “corporations are persons”. In fact it was added by the court reporter in a headnote – a commentary in the introduction to the Court decision. And headnotes have no legal standing. But that judicial mistake was followed by other Court decisions of a great significance – like the one that granted the corporations with the right to pour money into political campaigns in 2010. And the unrestricted corporate control of politics seems to be just the beginning.

Dina's Story (extra credit)

In the book Fast Food Nation Eric Schlosser described several ways that allow owners and managers in the fast food industry to lower production costs and ensure higher productivity. One of them is deskilling the labor force. Deskilled labor is cheap and workers are easy to control as they are not directly engaged in the production process. Restaurants also hire illegal immigrants who barely speak English, but desperately need money and are ready to do any kind of work and be paid at rates below the minimum wage. Some managers take a different route and make their profits on young and naive foreign students like Dina.

Dina came to New York City as a participant of a "Summer Work & Travel" program for the summer of 2010. This program allows post-secondary students to enter the United States to work and travel during their summer vacation. Dina was excited about living in a megalopolis as she was coming from a small town in Russia. She thought that it wouldn't be a problem to find a job as a waitress in such a big city with thousands of restaurants. But when she started searching, she realized that it would be almost impossible to get a good job without required 2 years of NYC experience and fluency in English. 

That's why she was thrilled to find an ad in a newspaper that said that a busy pizzeria in Brooklyn needed a waitress, no experience was necessary - they were willing to train. She was hired immediately. All the instructions were clear. She was told that at the beginning all she had to do was cleaning - tables, floors, bathrooms and sometimes dishes. The manager said everyone does this for the first two weeks of "training". He promised that after those two weeks he would put her behind the register. He also noted that during those two weeks Dina would be paid five dollars per hour, because that was "training". Starting week three she was supposed to be paid twice that amount. Well-knowing that it was the first time the girl visited the country he added that she had to appreciate his kindness because in other places new workers were trained for free. 

After two weeks of waking up at 5 am, working 12-hour shifts for 6 days a week, Dina was called to the manager. She was sure he was going to tell her that she could start working as a cashier. But the manager sadly announced that the business was not going well, and they had no other choice but to lay off several employees. He said that they really liked how hardworking Dina was and would call her as soon as the business would do better.

Two weeks after that Dina was passing by the pizzeria and decided to stop by and ask if things got better. She was surprised to see a new girl that was doing the job Dina used to do. She saw that all other workers were still the same and apparently no one else was "laid off". She quietly asked the girl how long she had been working at the place. The girl said that for two weeks. She also said that starting the following week she was supposed to work behind the register...
As Dina realized the owner of that pizzeria was saving money on the cleaning staff by constantly hiring young and inexperienced foreign students. They are naive and don't expect their employer to fool them. They are also easy to control as they don't know the U.S. laws and just believe everything that the boss says is the way things are done everywhere in the country.

P.S. Dina changed her flight ticket and went back to Russia two months earlier than she had planned.

The Adjustment Of Policies

In the book Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet Michael T. Klare explores the subject of the geopolitics of energy in the contemporary world. He observes that the national leaders of the energy-seeking countries form their foreign policies under the influence of the pursuit of foreign reserves. Klare described it as a “hysteria over the future adequacy of reserves and outsized fears about the possibility of losing out to more aggressive procurement tactics by rivals” (26).  He provides an example of a Chinese President Hu Jintao taking a long trip through Central Asia and Africa, “currying favor with prospective oil producers” (28).  

I also see the link between Klare’s observations and the excessive corporate power and influence over government in the U.S. In the first case it was the adjustment of the foreign policies, and in this case it is the adjustment of national policy. Corporations have the immense ability to fund campaigns of the candidates. Therefore to be elected and, what’s also important, to stay elected candidate has to appeal to corporate interests. This is the only explanation I can give to the fact that the ridiculous bill on banning the undercover investigations on the factory farms was passed by the Senate Agriculture Committee and was widely approved by the House. The consequences of this legislation, if passed, are obvious – animal abuse and food safety violations will remain hidden. Corporations are pushing the ban in their interests through the people that have the power to make these decisions; and in their turn those people are eager to stay in their powerful positions and will do what they are told to.

"Not a Person Friendly Place"

The documentary Food, INC. by Robert Kenner brings up an idea that the controlling type of mentality that the industrial corporations apply to treating animals on the farms is also applied to workers and individuals in their own communities, as well as to consumers.

As Polyface farms owner Joel Salatin points out modern industrial agriculture follows the motto "faster, fatter, bigger, cheaper", disregarding the interests of the customers, working conditions on the plants, and ecological health of the whole system. 

One of the workers at the Smithfield hog processing plant says that the authorities have the same mentality towards the workers, as they do towards the hogs. And as it can be seen in the video shot by worker's hidden camera - that is the mentality of disdain and disrespect. People are treated as a "human machine". The worker also notes that they don't care about the longevity of the workers, because to them everything has an end. A union organizer Eduardo Peña comments on that statement by saying that Smithfield has mastered the art of picking the workforce that they can exploit. And even when they engage in a criminal activity by bringing the illegal workers across the US border from Mexico, "the government is not cracking down on the companies, the government is cracking down on the workers".

But no one can actually see what's going on behind the plant walls, as Joel Salatin observes that the industrial food system became so noisy, smelly and "not a person-friendly place" that people operating at those megaprocessing facilities don't want anyone to go there, because than customers would see "the ugly truth".

Profitable Cravings

In his book Fast Food Nation Eric Schlosser underlines the enormous role that perfume and flavor companies play in the process of fast food production. Schlosser states that the initial choice of the product by customer may be affected by the design of its packaging, but the subsequent purchases are by most part determined by its taste.  Fast food companies are making profit on the human craving for flavor by using natural and artificial additives.
To ensure “consumer likeability” and keep people coming back for more food companies turn to the small and elite group of scientists – flavorists, whose job is, as Schlosser wrote, “to conjure illusions about processed food”. To make food products provide their supposed natural taste and delicate aroma after a being processed, canned, dehydrated, frozen, then reheated in the microwave flavorists adjust the food’s mouthfeel. Mouthfeel, as Schlosser defines it, is “the unique combination of textures and chemical interactions that affects how the flavor is perceived”.  The taste of the food can be radically altered by some tiny changes in its flavoring mix, providing the companies with the product that is scientifically designed to satisfy human cravings for flavor.

Stroking

In his book Fast Food Nation Eric Schlosser mentions “stroking” as one of the psychological techniques that managers at the fast food restaurants use to motivate their crew members. Schlosser defines it as “a form of positive reinforsment, deliberate praise, and recognition.” By this means the fast food chains try to keep the “team spirit” of their easy-to-control teenage workers in the absence of good wages and secure employment.

But this psychological strategy is being applied not only to the young crews of the chain restaurants. Stroking can also be used at the “success seminars”. Schlosser provides an example of the “Success Authority”  convention that is regularly organized by Peter Lowe, "the greatest superstar salesperson of all time", who  promotes and sells his "success" books and cassets to the members of the audience that come to listen to famous people sharing their success stories.