Do Big Corporations Have Too Much Power?
Have you ever been to the beach? The feeling of the salty air blowing your hair all around, the sound of seagulls squawking? But there is a problem. There are brightly colored chip bags and vibrantly red Coca-Cola bottles littered on the ground. According to Sierra Club, Coca-Cola creates 200,000 bottles of Coke in one minute, and 3 million tons of plastic pollution each year; they also create 5.56 million metric tons of greenhouse gas each year. Big oil corporations create even more climate problems. In 2022, oil and gas facilities created 316 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. Big companies create giant climate disasters and then create “less waste” products making Americans believe that climate change is a problem individuals can fix. In reality, the climate crisis cannot be combated unless the big oil, gas, and other companies make big changes.
In addition to big corporations’ contributions to climate change, they also impact small businesses in a negative way. In 2020, 400,000 small businesses closed down due to COVID, while big corporations’ profits grew 19.2%, according to the Board of governors of the Federal Reserve System. This is due to many factors: big economic shocks happened at that time, forcing businesses, big and small, to make large assumptions about how their business will fare in the economy. Some, of course, fared well, and some did not. Bigger corporations fared well simply because they are bigger, have more resources, and more staying power.
You might say: “Well lots of people work at Coca-Cola. They provide thousands of jobs, and that’s good.” I say: Coca-Cola has been shown to have tremendously bad working conditions. According to The News Line, a Coca-Cola truck driver in Haiti was shot and killed in his vehicle, but Coca-Cola has made no meaningful investigation into this killing. This shows that Coca-Cola has no real regard for a safe working environment.
Overall big corporations are bad in a lot of ways. I encourage readers to support their local small businesses, avoid big corporations, and support workers by boycotting so workers are able to make the necessary changes they require for safe working.
