The Decline of Entrepreneurial Capitalism

What do the following have in common: Budweiser Beer; CITGO gasoline; Good Humor, Ben and Jerry’s, and Breyer’s ice creams; French’s mustard; Frigidaire refrigerators; Adidas and Reebok shoes; New York’s Plaza Hotel and Chrysler Building; Caribou Coffee and Church’s Chicken; Trader Joe’s; 7-Eleven; Holiday Inn; Dial Soap; T-Mobile; Firestone tires; the Sunglass Hut; the Indiana Toll Road — part of the interstate Route 80; and Toll House Cookies? The answer is that each of these seemingly American brands and assets is actually owned and controlled by a foreign corporation. The selling off of the United States of America has been going on for some time, and foreign owned corporations now control 50% or more of many important US industries:

* Sound recording industries – 97%
* Commodity contracts dealing and brokerage – 79%
* Motion picture and sound recording industries – 75%
* Metal ore mining – 65%
* Motion picture and video industries – 64%
* Wineries and distilleries – 64%
* Database, directory, and other publishers – 63%
* Book publishers – 63%
* Cement, concrete, lime, and gypsum production – 62%
* Engine, turbine and power transmission equipment – 57%
* Rubber – 53%
* Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing – 53%
* Plastics and rubber products manufacturing – 52%
* Plastics – 51%
* Other insurance related activities – 51%
* Boiler, tank, and shipping containers – 50%

And as borrowing by Americans continues — by individuals, businesses, and governments — and as trade deficits continue unabated, our country is literally being sold out from under us. The good news is that the world seems to be more interested than ever in investing in America. But the reality of increasing foreign ownership in the U.S. suggests that we need to re-look at the relationship between our government and increasingly powerful multinational corporations.

When the Supreme Court ruled in 1886 in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, a case dealing with taxation of railroad properties by the State of California, the court set the precedent that corporations are entitled to the same protection as individuals under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In its ruling earlier this year striking down federal election law, the court further expanded its 1886 ruling by extending First Amendment rights to corporations and unions, including multinational corporations controlled by non-US citizens and foreign governments.

Most Americans seem not to realize that their rights as Americans are being increasingly ceded to multinational corporations. The oil industry, the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, the food industry, the banking and financial industries — all of these are largely beyond the control of the any government entity. Despite the harm they cause. The federal court ruling in the case of the Obama Administration’s deep water off-shore drilling moratorium is but the latest evidence of the increasing reach of corporations. The Interior Department moratorium applied to only 33 deep water well projects and there are more than 3500 wells currently in production in the Gulf of Mexico. Even in the event of catastrophic damage to the health, property, and livelihoods of many thousands who live and work in the Gulf, corporate power rules.

Isn’t it time we took a new look at corporations having the same rights as individuals? With their tremendous resource advantage, corporations not only have the same rights but it can be argued they have far greater rights. We are no longer talking entrepreneurial capitalism, we are talking international capitalism. They are not the same.