Corporations and Counterfeit Goods

Joiner, Caroline. Various-Counterfeit-Products. 2008. Accessed
26 Apr. 2011. <http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/money/
shopping/shopping-tips/counterfeit-products-1-08/overview/
counterfeit-ov.htm>

Recently competition in international markets has become fierce.  This strong competitiveness can result in excellent business achievements but it can also result in counterfeiting.  According to the Alliance for Gray Market and Counterfeit Abatement counterfeiting is the making or selling of unauthorized copies of merchandise (par 15).  The Alliance for Gray Market and Counterfeit Abatement also says that all counterfeit goods are have a counterfeit mark which is a false mark used on goods and services that is identical and indistinguishable from the genuine mark (par 15).  This means that counterfeit products could easily reach the general public causing people to be confused and afraid to buy certain things because they think it might be fake.  It also illustrates the importance that corporations have in controlling the flow of products within their company to make sure that no counterfeit goods enter their system.  In addition the Alliance for Gray Market and Counterfeit Abatement declares that most counterfeiting occurs in less developed countries or in flea markets (par 17).  This means that if somebody wants to be sure that they are buying the real thing then they need to buy it from a well known legitimate company.  Counterfeiting is a big business in the world’s economy today.   According to the Progressive Policy Institute the worldwide sales of counterfeit goods is $650 billion per year (par 3).  The Progressive Policy Institute also says that the U.S. seizes over $100 million worth of counterfeit goods at ports each year (par 3).  This means that counterfeiting is spreading to more developed countries and could disrupt the U.S. economy.  If a product is priced well below what it should be then it is probably counterfeit.  However counterfeiters are becoming increasingly cleverer and pricing their counterfeit products close to the actual price of the real thing and using new technology to place better counterfeit marks on their products.  Counterfeiting is only going to get more and more difficult to detect as time goes by so corporations need to do their job to protect their customers by making sure that they do not let any counterfeit goods into their stores. 

Works Cited

Alliance for Gray Market and Counterfeit Abatement. AGMA Counterfeiting FAQ. 2009. 26 April 2011 <http://www.agmaglobal.org/resources/faq.shtml>.

Joiner, Caroline. Various-Counterfeit-Products. 2008. Accessed 26 Apr. 2011. <http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/money/shopping/shopping-tips/counterfeit-products-1-08/overview/counterfeit-ov.htm>

Progressive Police institute. Worldwide Market for Counterfeit Goods: $650 billion. 14 June 2006. 26 April 2001 <http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=900003&contentID=253907>.

Corporations and Price Fixing

Cannone, Brian. dollar-sign. 2009. Accessed 14 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.fitnesssalestraining.com/access/upside-
leverage-fitness-marketing.html>

American consumers have the right to expect the best goods and services at the lowest prices from free and open competition.  Businesses often rely on a competition to accomplish this.  However competition only works when businesses set prices honestly and independently. When corporations conspire together prices are inflated and customers are cheated. According to Jean-Claude Bosch price fixing is an agreement among businesses to raise, fix, or maintain the price that their goods or services are sold for (par 2).  Studies from Bosch show that about 14% of American corporations have been caught engaging in price fixing schemes (par 3).  If that number were to include all of the corporations that engaged in price fixing schemes and were never caught the number would be substantially higher.  Certain pricing patterns can show if there is a high probability of price fixing.  According to the U.S. Department of Justice price fixing can occur if prices stay identical for long periods of time, price increases are not supported by increased costs, discounts are eliminated, or if businesses are charging higher prices to local customers than distant customers (par 17) .  Price fixing and other forms of corruption are illegal and are subject to criminal prosecution by the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice.  According to the U.S. Department of Justice if a corporation is caught running price fixing schemes the maximum penalty is a $100 million fine and if an individual is caught running a price fixing scheme the maximum penalty is a $1 million fine and 10 years of prison (par 5).  When corporations fix prices they are stealing money from the general public just to increase their profits.  Corporate price fixing schemes are difficult to detect but people need to do whatever it takes to fight against it and eradicate it from the world. 

Works Cited

Bosch, Jean-Claude. The Profitability of Price Fixing: Evidence From Stock Market Reaction to Federal Indictments. May 1991. 14 April 2011 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2109522>.

Cannone, Brian. dollar-sign. 2009. Accessed 14 Apr. 2011. <http://www.fitnesssalestraining.com/access/upside-leverage-fitness-marketing.html>

United States Department of Justice. Price Fixing, Bid Rigging, and Market Allocation Schemes: What They Are and What to Look For . January 2011. 14 April 2011 <http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/guidelines/211578.htm>.

Corporations’ Impact on the Government

Bachman, Katy. 1209508-capital-building-picture. 2011. Accessed
7 Apr. 2011.  <http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/
media/e3iadc3894a0975c85f51e5e8083d065af3>

Many people are familiar with the idea of corporations influencing the government.  Most corporations influence the government through campaign funding.  According to Marc A Triebwasser the time a corporation made a major contribution to a political campaign was in 1896 to support William McKinley (par 2).  Triebwasser also says that corporations can donate as much money as they want to support a certain political party as long as they are not supporting a particular candidate (par 13).  Many corporations can also run a tremendous amount of advertisements against certain politicians with no restrictions on how many ads can be shown.  Research from Triebwasser indicates that if a person can receive about $200,000 then that person can run an excellent campaign in a congressional election (par 18).  This means that a corporation only needs to donate a small fraction of the billions of dollars that it profits to back a certain political party.  Once a corporation supports a certain political party then they can get the money to certain politicians under the table without directly contributing to any specific person.  Corporations can also pay people to lobby for certain politicians.  Many corporations regulate certain parts of the economy.  According to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse these regulatory agencies are only concerned with the prosperity of their industry and prevent changes that will have negative effects on it (par 3).  Whitehouse also says that this ultimately leads corporations to dominate many aspects of politician’s political agenda (par 3).  This means that many corporations can control who is elected to office and the objectives of those who are elected.  One way protect against this is to never let government agencies fall under the influence of corporations.  The government also needs to have stricter laws to prevent corporate influence in political campaigns and elections.  America needs to take all necessary measures to prevent corporations from influencing the government or else the consequences will be catastrophic. 

Works Cited

Bachman, Katy. 1209508-capital-building-picture. 2011. Accessed 7 Apr. 2011. <http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/media/e3iadc3894a0975c85f51e5e8083d065af3>

Triebwasser, Marc A. How Corporations Influence the Government. 1998. 7 April 2011 <http://www.polisci.ccsu.edu/trieb/InfluGov.html>.

Whitehous, Sheldon. Protecting Our Government From Corporate Influence . 23 June 2010. 7 April 2011 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-sheldon-whitehouse/protecting-our-government_b_623143.html>.

Corporations and Human Rights

Bousquet, Marc. Sweatshop. 2009. Accessed 31 Mar. 2011.
<http://webpages.scu.edu/ftp/DGreen/researchhypertext/litreview.html>

In general the protection of human rights is not a considered a corporate responsibility.  The federal government and many state governments fail to impose sufficient human rights laws on corporations.  Corporations are very powerful units that severely impact the wellbeing of communities and individuals wherever they operate.  They have had detrimental effects on human rights protection in developing countries and developed countries as well.  According to David Kinley a professor of law at Monash University since 1999 there has been an increased interest worldwide to make corporations responsible for protecting human rights (7).  Many developing countries abuse their own people through police and military brutality, forced child labor, violation of freedom of association, speech, and religion, and infringement on property rights.    Studies from Kinley show that in 2001 39 pharmaceutical companies in South Africa fought to prevent a new law from being passes which would have lowered the price of prescription drugs in a country where the poverty rate is high (9).  That is extremely unethical for corporations to be able to control the price of prescription drugs so that they are ridiculously high especially in an area with a soaring poverty rate.  Those high prices force people to spend extra money on the medications they need and not have much money left for food or other necessary items.  Kinley also mentions that Nike is notorious for running sweatshops in less developed countries (10).  It is also immoral to deeply exploit a mass amount of people just to maximize profits.  In developed countries corporations mistreat their own people by infringing on environmental rights, violation of privacy rights, and unethical use of people’s personal information such as medical records.  Kinley states that many corporations in America and Canada have ignored patent protection laws to heighten their proceeds (9).  That causes many people to not trust corporations with their ideas and lowers people’s enthusiasm which could cause the economy to decline.  Richard Eskow from the Huffington Post insists that many insurance companies misuse medical information to decide who they should insure and what price they pay for it (par 2).  This means that the people that really need health insurance could be forced to pay higher rates than everybody else or be denied coverage.  Eskow also reasons that if a regular person committed the crimes that a great deal of corporations have committed then that person would be sentenced to prison (par 13).  This means that numerous corporations are getting away with heinous crimes that should have a severe punishment.  Corporations need to work hard to protect human rights or else the world will turn into a place where corporations dominate everything while having no responsibilities. 

Works Cited

Bousquet, Marc. Sweatshop. 2009. Accessed 31 Mar. 2011. <http://webpages.scu.edu/ftp/DGreen/researchhypertext/litreview.html>

Eskow, Richard. MadisonWorld: A Future Where Corporations Have Human Rights… and Humans Don’t. 23 March 2011. 31 March 2011 <http://www.ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/eskow20110323>.

Kinley, David. Multinational corporations and human rights. February 2002. 31 March 2011 <http://www.law.monash.edu.au/castancentre/projects/arc_kinley.pdf>.

Corporations’ Power Over Education

Winter, Tim. Wamego High School. 2005. Wamego Public Schools.
Accessed 17 Mar. 2011. <http://www.usd320.k12.ks.us/HighSchool/>

Corporations are starting to have a more aggressive influence on the U.S. education system and transforming it into a big business. Many low scoring school districts feel obligated to pay for heavily scripted curriculum programs in order to boost their test results which would heighten the school’s reputation.  According to Alfie Kohn most of these programs that schools purchase in order to raise their test scores are owned by McGraw-Hill (par 3).  Kohn also says that McGraw-Hill has gained support from many influential politicians such as Charlotte Frank and George Bush (par 3).  The massive profit made by this company does not explain why many teachers and students depend greatly on the test results for their curriculum and future.  According to Julie Light the many publically traded education companies are growing faster than the Dow Jones Average (par 3).  Light also claims that the science curriculum for numerous schools are determined by corporations such as Proctor and Gamble, Dupont, and Exxon (par 1).  This corporate power over the curriculum required to be taught at public schools could be detrimental to the entire education system.  With that much power they could force public schools to teach their students to support large corporations and try to manipulate them to do things that would be harmful to them but beneficial to corporations.  Corporations could also mandate that public schools refuse to teach certain things that make corporations look bad and withhold vital information from people so corporations can make even more money.  Light also reports that a great deal of corporations will donate money to a school so they can build or fund something in exchange for the right to actively sell their products at that school (par 2).  According to Light Pepsi provided $2 million for a school in Colorado to build a new football stadium and in exchange Pepsi was granted rights to sell its products at that school (par 2).  It is estimated that Pepsi will earn $7.3 million in seven years from that school alone (par 2).  The power that corporations have over the products that are marketed and sold to children in public schools could encourage many children to be manipulated into buying many things that they do not need.  Many students in high school carry their habits with them into their adulthood and if they overspend their money it would be disparaging effects for much of the U.S. population.  Corporations have too much power over the public education system.   People need to take a more active role to push corporations away from public schools and make sure that public school students make better choices to promote a better world. 

Works Cited

Kohn, Alfie. The Corporate Role in the High-stakes Testing Obsession & Other Methods of Turning Education into a Business. October 2002. 17 March 2011 <http://reclaimdemocracy.org/weekly_article/corporate_influence_education_kohn.html>.

Light, Julie. The Education Industry: The Corporate Takeover of Public Schools. 8 July 1998. 17 March 2011 <http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=889>.

Winter, Tim. Wamego High School. 2005. Wamego Public Schools. Accessed 17 Mar. 2011. <http://www.usd320.k12.ks.us/HighSchool/>

Corporations’ Influence on Children

Oates, Jen. Young Boy Watching Television. 2010. Accessed
3 Mar. 2011. <http://www.mamapop.com/2010/12/the-magic-in-
the-machines-why-i-pink-puffy-heart-my-dvr.html/young-boy-
watching-television>

Major corporations can greatly influence and control the mainstream media.  Many of them own media stations and media outlets.  These large corporations are also making lots of money and are able to spend more and more money on sophisticated was to make people buy their products.  Children are major targets of advertising and its impact is greater than usual because it lessens the effect that their parents and others in the older generation have on them.  According to Melissa Dittmann of the American Psychological Association corporations spend about $12 billion per year on ads targeting children (par 1).  Dittmann also states that the average child watches around 40,000 television commercials each year (par 1).  Many children do not have the ability to recognize the persuasive intent of advertisements.  Most children can remember what happened in an advertisement and have a desire for the product after viewing just one commercial.  Dr. Brian Wilcox believes that advertisements can influence a child’s behavior as well (par 11).  As an example Wilcox says that when a child watches an ad for healthy food and then watches an ad for snack food at the same sitting then the ad for healthy food loses its effectiveness (par 11).  This type of advertising that encourages children to eat sugary, greasy, unhealthy foods could be increasing the rate of childhood obesity.  Also most people’s childhood eating habits continue throughout their adult life.  Studies from the Anti-Defamation League show that advertising could also affect a child’s views about their self image which could increase their stress levels and could possibly lead to depression (par 2).  Many children watch T.V. or surf the internet without any parental guidance there to explain to them what is actually going on.  According to Dr. Dale Kunkel children automatically think that ads are fair and truthful and cannot tell if something is exaggerated or bias (par 14).  Also studies from Dittmann have shown that big corporations use psychological research to make the message of their ads more powerful (par 16).  Many corporations use characters and celebrities such as SpongeBob SquarePants to lure children in.  To stop the damaging effects that corporations have on children parents need to get more involved in their child’s life and make sure that their child is not being manipulated or misled by anything.  

Works Cited

Anti-Defamation League. Media Influence and Self-Image. 2001. 3 March 2011 <http://www.adl.org/what_to_tell/whattotell_media.asp>.

Dittmann, Melissa. Protecting children from advertising. June 2004. 3 March 2011 <http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun04/protecting.aspx>.

Oates, Jen. Young Boy Watching Television. 2010. Accessed 3 Mar. 2011. <http://www.mamapop.com/2010/12/the-magic-in-the-machines-why-i-pink-puffy-heart-my-dvr.html/young-boy-watching-television>

Positive Effects of Corporations

Loviza, Amanda. Kroger’s Produce Aisle. 2010. Accessed 27 Feb.
2011. <http://fgscholars.com/farmtofork/archives/595>

Many people only see the negative side of corporations and fail to recognize the many positive effects that corporations can have on the general public.  Almost all corporations contribute to economical growth through their investments, products, and services.  Many corporations can convert their knowledge into practical results such as their products and services, especially in the agriculture and health industries.  Corporations are also responsible for the advancement of technology and making those technologies available for the general public.  In addition patents safeguard the ideas and results of inventors and entrepreneurs that are outside of corporations.  According to the Novartis Foundation many corporations’ policies are determined by economic criteria such as market size, and availability of raw materials, not by the government trying to extend its range of power (par 7).  Corporations provide many job opportunities to the general public and training in a wide array of areas as well.  They are also responsible for much of the research that is done and putting that new knowledge about something to a use in a way that benefits not only themselves but the general public as a whole.  According to Anup Shah corporations also help increase the country’s export income (par 6).  Corporations can also manufacture certain goods and provide certain services, such as food and medicine that are impossible for small business to provide because the market is too big.   They also increase the productivity of labor through globalization.  Studies from the Novartis Foundation show that corporations usually pay wages that are significantly higher than other traditional jobs (par 4).  In addition they motivate entrepreneurship by increasing business competition.  Corporations are also a source of tax revenue for the government.  There are many positive things that corporations contribute to society.  It would be extremely difficult for the general public to provide the goods and services that are needed for everyday life, such as food and clothes, to the entire country.  Corporations allow people to move on with their life so they do not have to grow their own food or provide everyday things for themselves.  Corporations allow people to have more freedom and are essential for America to function prosperously. 

Works Cited

Loviza, Amanda. Kroger’s Produce Aisle. 2010. Accessed 27 Feb. 2011. <http://fgscholars.com/farmtofork/archives/595>.

Novartis Foundation . The Effect of Multinational Companies on Development. 2000. 27 February 2011 <http://www.urbana.org/articles/the-effect-of-multinational-companies-on-development>.

Shah, Anup. Corporations. 2 October 2010. 27 February 2011 <http://www.globalissues.org/issue/50/corporations>.