Eliminate Externalities

Evan Gregory

ZOO 121 – A

David Russell

November 19, 2012

Eliminate Externalities

        Growing up in capitalistic America children are told we can be anything we want to be, the sky is the limit. Parents emphasize that that dreams can come true, and anything you want you can have with hard work. This may be possible for Americans, but what is the limit. When a corporation’s strive for success and profit maximization causes harm to a third-party, there is a problem. In our country, some large conglomerates dominate the market place and aspects of government. Corporations have over stepped ethical boundaries with the externalities they generate and pass. Something needs to be done about this situation before it is too late.

One hundred and fifty years ago the business corporation was a relatively insignificant institution. The ones that did exist were chartered by the government and had to adhere to their charter. Today it is all-pervasive. The modern corporation first came to power when in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, 118 U.S. 394 (1886), the Supreme Court recognized corporations as people in reference to the Fourteenth Amendment. This meant that companies were given all the rights afforded to citizens. They could own property, own other businesses, sue, be sued and so on. They are “people” of shareholders, not stakeholders like normal citizens. The corporations are the face of the shareholders they represent. In this case, they have an obligation to themselves. This is an obligation to get as large and profitable as possible. Profits, means cutting margins. These rights were the beginning to the abuse that is so present today.

There are many companies that are a necessity in our society that provide goods and services of great value. The problem develops with profit maximization. They are required by law to place the financial interests of their investors before competing interests. Many economists claim that there are only a few “bad apples”, but in all honesty these “bad apples” dominate the market and have the power to influence surrounding politics. The revenue motivation in these cases outweighs the impact these processes might have on the rest of the world.

In our drive for wealth and prosperity humans create things that are harming to the whole race. One of the first third-parties to be harmed is the biosphere. The environment has no say for itself and is easy exploited. Every year there are new clear-cut forests, dumped nuclear waste and  pollution. Factories and other businesses pump tons of thousands of C02 and other sulfur oxides into the atmosphere. We have accepted this for so long, allowing for it to continue with no retribution. Now we are at a point where companies can buy and sell amounts of pollution they are allowed to produce. Society has come to the point of commercializing the natural air of the Earth. In the 14th, 15th, 16th centuries in Europe the communal system had its first transformation. Land that was thought to belong to God and the good of everyone was sold and became privatized land. Then countries could own rights to a certain amount of water of the ocean outside their borders. Now even the air we breathe can be privatized for commercial traffic of airplanes or a factories allowed amount of pollution. The biosphere that we live in is in constant decline. We are at a point where the only life system in the world, not in decline are  types like growths from fertilizer run-off. The damages we are doing as humans are shortening the life span of all living things.

A particular aspect of the abuse of the corporate super power is in the food we eat every day. The obesity epidemic is just a minor glimpse of the impact our food has on us. Not to mention the potential that all these synthetic foods could do to us. The beef we have been consuming with out knowing is absolutely absurd. Cattle is meant to graze but to maximize profits farms will force-feed thousands of calories of starch rich corn product to super speed the fattening process. Cows did not evolve to eat like this. Cattle fed this super meal  develop stomach ulcers by the time they reach the slaughterhouse. The cow that yields the beef that we buy from supermarkets would have died in about a week or so if it had not been slaughtered. We eat dying cows. The worst part is the FDA approves this meat. The FDA is a great example of the corporate power enacted in government. Most of the officials in the FDA have once worked for these major food and agriculture conglomerates. They have the power approve anything they want.

The genetically modified animals are an abomination to the way our society lives our lives. For instance, about 25% of cows are given a hormone called rBGH, rBST, or Posilac. This hormone makes the dairy cows produce ridiculous more amounts of milk than natural. Monsanto, it’s creator, said there was no evidence of harmful effects, no antibiotics were needed. That was a lie. Some studies have linked chronic inflammation of the heart and kidneys, reproductive problems, and breast and prostate cancer to rBGH dairy. Most of these problems come from Mastitis. An infection of utters caused by the synthetic hormone being injected into the utters. Puss from the infection in the utters gets into our milk. The cows are then injected with antibiotics to try and fight this infection. People end up consuming these antibiotics. Doctors and biologists believe this is leading to antibiotic resilient diseases. Such the reason that one can go into a hospital, catch a Staph infection, and die from it due to the Staph being incurable. Things like this make me scared for the world and our future. I am especially nervous for the future of our children.  For me to change my mind, there would need to be widespread evidence that the GMO livestock don't negative impact on humans but if there is it won't be the methods used today. Monsanto’s advertising campaign says, “Each cow not treated is a lost income opportunity.” This same company affects 25% of the dairy market. (Food Inc.) The same Monsanto helped create Agent Orange for Vietnam and has been linked 150,000 birth defects so far by the Vietnamese Red Cross. The company that helped develop Agent Orange is associated with 25% of the dairy, and about 80% of corn and soybean product.