Trent Ruble's Blog: The Other Way It Is - Posts Tagged "deception"

Business models have always called for company officials to do what's best for their companies. That's what investors expect. But, today's big companies have become so powerful that the very business model that created them has evolved into something more sinister. It seems that the officials have gone from doing what's best for their companies to doing anything it takes in order to make money. If it weren't for competition, there wouldn't be any incentive at all to consider public interest.

I realize I differ from my conservative friends on this issue. But, the greed and deception has become so common (and obvious) that I find it offensive and in need of redress. Here's an example: Companies hire lobbyists to convince lawmakers to vote in such a way that it will benefit the company they represent. Companies spend millions of dollars showering lawmakers with incentives, which is unethical at best. We all know this lobbying effort has nothing to do with what's best for the people of this nation but, rather, it has everything to do with what makes the most money for the company.

But, there is an even more obvious example of corporate greed and we see it everywhere (can everywhere be an understatement?) and that's in advertising. The content of an ad is, without fail, the most misleading, ultra biased information you'll ever see or hear. How can it be that every product is the very best? Or, can save you the most money? Our family mutes commercials in order to escape the onslaught of deception. So, considering this dishonesty, please substitute "we want as much of your money as possible" for any phrase in any advertisement. Actually, whenever a company speaks publicly, no matter what the words, the meaning is; "We want as much of your money as possible."

Sometimes companies try to trick us into believing they're good corporate citizens when, for example, they donate a portion of their retail price to a charity. But, we must remember that, when they suggest such a thing, they're still saying, "We want as much of your money as possible." They're not donating because the charity is a good cause. They're donating because they want you to believe that buying their product will help the charity and, therefore, you'll buy more of it, thus creating more profit for the big company. Otherwise, they would give that money back to you through lower prices and allow you to decide if and to whom you want to donate your money.

I clearly saw the scope of this problem when, as a police detective, I would routinely request information from companies during criminal investigations. The larger the company, the more difficult it would be dealing with them. Most of the time the biggest companies would simply refuse. If that happened I would request that the court issue a subpoena ordering the company to provide the information. I didn't have the authority to do this on my own; a judge had to sign each subpoena. But, regardless of the judge's order, the first thing a big company would do upon receiving a subpoena was to determine if they had to comply and, believe it or not, because of legal loopholes, many times they didn't. Many big companies actually employ lawyers to determine which subpoenas and court orders they must honor, regardless of the importance the information has to the investigation. You see, they are more worried about their image than they are about the criminal investigation. And, of course, this is because they don't want anyone to think that, by doing business with them, information may land in the hands of the police. Did they forget they want to be good corporate citizens? No, that was never what they wanted. What they want is your money.

Big business runs America so, of course, this situation isn't going to change anytime soon, if at all. And, no one can dispute that there are a lot of good products and services available. We just have to remember who we're dealing with and what they're saying to us.