| Study guide for Corporate Predators FROM RALPH NADER'S INTRODUCTION There are two broad goals of corporations, each aimed at increasing profits: >> Increase revenues (e.g., market share) >> Socialize cost - pass on costs to the public wherever possible Why is this a descriptive book? (very little criminology theory or academic research cited) >> Government doesn't even try to document corporate crime the way it does street crime, so there is little in the way of a knowledge base (or data base) to drive policy making. ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK PART 1 Documents the neglect of corporate crime by criminologists. PART 2 Shows how corporations influence government with political contributions in order to "stack the deck" politically and legally in their favor. PART 3 Globalization - increasing revenues and socializing costs by exploiting poorer countries. PART 4 The worst of the worst corporate criminals (familiar names!). PART 5 Merger mania - bigger scale leads to increased revenues and power to socialize costs. PART 6 Buying cultural influence to clean up corporate image (the scam of selling predator corporations as "good citizens"). PART 7 Union busting - decreased wages for workers = higher profits for corporations. PART 8 The reluctance of the legal system to take on powerful corporate criminals. |