There are a number of narratives that exist about corporations. One is that they are essential for accumulating and deploying capital and workers in ways that increase productivity, efficiency and, therefore, the wealth of our country. An alternative view is that corporate power has despoiled the environment, exploited workers and overpowered our political system. In their book Corporate Bullsh*t, authors Nick Hanauer, Joan Walsh and Donald Cohen explore the outright lies and half-truths that corporations have deployed to convince Americans that what’s good for corporate America is also good for the country.
Through case studies and hundreds of quotes from corporate executives and their apologists, the authors demonstrate the lengths to which corporations have gone to shape how the public views economics, public policy, labor unions and the future of our environment. In one case study on civil rights, they remind us of how discrimination against Black Americans was justified by arguments that the “free market” would end discriminatory practices more effectively than “government meddling.” “I will have nothing to do with a law that will destroy our free enterprise system,” Alabama Gov. George Wallace said in 1964 after the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
