Servitude of the Century

From the 70's until now, our world and businesses in particular have become interconnected and fully globalized. This enables goods and services to be available at low prices and widely available to large amounts of people. A majority of corporations have chosen to outsource their labor in order to cut costs in places such as China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and other developing nations around the world. Unfortunately, this has resulted in extremely low wages for laborers in these nations. Just as an example, JCPenny, Walmart, The Children's Place, and H&M all source a large amount of their labor in Bangladesh; additionally, Free People, Urban Outfitters, Forever 21, Aeropostale, and Anthropologie were all found to be using child labor in Uzbekistan to harvest cotton. Not only do these companies create crucial human rights concerns, but they also produce devastating amounts of waste in other countries. The waste ends up contaminating water sources, the surrounding environments and damaging communities. 

 Corporations have grown into billion-dollar giants that have exploited populations of foreign countries who are trying to escape poverty and on the environments they choose to source their labor in. Money is the key motivation for corporations even if it means making a dollar on the backs and blood of other human beings. However, not only do these corporations harm foreign populations, but some harm the domestic population as well, in multiple different ways. 

For example, one of the most powerful families in the world is the Koch family, or the Koch brothers. Koch Industries entered the oil industry in 1968 and from there, it became the 2nd largest privately owned company in the U.S. with a revenue of $115 billion per year. The Koch brothers are known to be conservative and have also been known to donate outrageous amounts of money to Republicans. This is an example of the elite using their wealth to buy elections and harming the American people through a rigged democracy. 

Another example is the Walton family, who, combined, is the richest family in the U.S. The Waltons, founders of Wal-Mart, are extremely wealthy and continue to pay their employees extremely low wages. Many Wal-Mart employees require financial assistance in the forms of welfare and food stamps in order to survive. Wal-Mart is a successful corporations that makes billions of dollars but it does not provide for those who serve the company and it exploits people in other nations. 

Present-day corporations are some of the most successful companies of all time and have completely revamped the term "monopoly". Corporations today are parent companies to many smaller businesses and have ungodly amounts of wealth and power. Corporations evolved drastically and changed the essence of business today, making it difficult for small businesses to compete and survive in today's society. Corporations in the early 1900's had issues with workers' rights and safety and working conditions, but measures were taken to reform these issues. More recently, these corporations have taken a dark turn in the last 40 years, turning into money-hungry, exploitative conglomerates that colonize any business that could possibly bring in more profits. Unfortunately, the worst part is that the priority of money comes before human lives and people have been cheated out of jobs, their environments, fair wages, and a fair, democratic society.  These circumstances are easily seen in today's society; overseas, factory fires are happening left and right and building collapses are happening far too frequently, such as the Rana Plaza incident in Bangladesh. A new perspective must be utilized to look into these corporations, not from a financial standpoint, but an ethical one.  

The Ups and the Downs

Following the close of the second world war, there was again a readjustment period to the peacetime economy. With this readjustment period came another increase in the amount of women in the work force, an 18% increase at that. The number of college students doubled, making it a feasible goal, not only one for the elite. In addition, the 50’s brought many technological advancements and powerful companies behind these inventions. The housing industry boomed, resulting in a boom for the Savings and Loan Association and their holdings in mortgages. Even businesses such as Playboy emerged with the newest sexual revolution of the 1960’s.

The atmosphere within corporations had also changed. These changes created office spaces with thin, attractive secretaries and smoke-filled offices full of employees socializing in their free time. Offices were very hierarchical, with women most commonly taking jobs with little skill required, such as secretarial positions This tended to occur even when women were overly qualified for higher positions within a company.

The economic expansion in the 50’s permitted expansion of business and of corporations, both domestically and internationally. General Motors, one of the many businesses that invested at home and abroad, continued to manufacture and sell their vehicles during the war. The growing economy that developed after the war increased GM’s production exponentially. GM produced 112 vehicles in 1948, with an increase to 20,000 vehicles by 1950 and a huge jump to 133,000 by 1962.

This prosperous expansion allowed consumers to increase their standard of living and their purchasing power. This allowed households to "keep up" with society. For example, between 1959 and 1970, the amount of households in the U.S. with a TV rose from 88 percent to 96 percent. This also allowed CBS, NBC, and many other companies that would grow to become household names. 

This time period is a bit more difficult to relate to the present, considering I have not seen this type of prosperity first-hand. The war took a toll on the economy and it had to bounce back once the war ended. Similarly, we had a huge economic recession in 2008 and the housing market crashed and burned before our eyes. As with a post-war economy, the economy had to be rebuilt after the great recession of 2008. The economy now isn't necessarily "prosperous", but it's getting better and the future is looking a little brighter. 

While economic ups and downs are normal, the direction the economy goes correlates with the direction profits for corporations go. The 50's and 60's were great both monetarily and for big business, but the war that occurred directly prior spiked that prosperity.