I’m not an anti-capitalist by any stretch of the imagination. Given today’s current state of human consciousness, it might even be the best system that we currently have, for means of economic production. Not to say that there aren’t huge problems with capitalism in its current form, the biggest being that it continues to plunder the Earth, making a habitable planet for future generations less and less likely. Not to mention, the over utilization of scarce resources and the planetary wide pollution that is created in our skies, land and oceans. However, it is in my opinion that not all corporations are evil. I think some of them are perhaps benevolent and others are far more nefarious. Capitalism is just a giant tool just like a gun or a automobile. It depends on the people who are working within the system. All that being said, I’m going to list some examples of the worst of multinational capitalism that I have had the unfortunate experience to witness firsthand.
By far the most egregious example of malevolent capitalism has to be Citibank, as I found out personally not long ago. Citibank was the bank for my housemate Jack, a 95-year-old World War II veteran, and a dying man. Jack had been a customer with Citibank for decades, and they knew him by sight, he had worked with the same woman for an extended period of time. Jack attempted to open online access to his banking as it was very difficult for him to go down and then up the stairs that lead from his house. Unfortunately for Jack, he was not very good with new technologies and made several attempts at opening an online banking account. As a result, Citibank froze all of his accounts and all access to his money, which was all within Citibank accounts. Jack made several calls and pleaded with his personal banker a woman whom he was well familiar with. Jack was refused over and over again, access to his accounts. Jack, as I said, could not leave the house which was only two blocks from his bank. I suppose people at Citibank were too busy to walk two blocks to confirm that Jack was who he said he was. Jack spent the last nine months of his life without any access to his money which was mostly used for medications and food. Obviously I wasn’t gonna let Jack go hungry or not receive his medication’s but he was a proud man, and this situation was to say the least, rather tragic and easily avoidable.
There have been many other occasions when I was on the unfortunate end of multinational corporate greed. The old and disabled are generally more susceptible to dishonest and misleading practices, however, even a relatively young person as myself can still pay a steep price for trusting the wrong institution.
What?Another example of what can only be called reprehensible behaviori what is experienced by my mother, an elderly woman who had Alzheimer’s disease. It seems AT&T convinced her she needed a cell phone and a new cell plan. My mother who had been a brilliant woman in her youth, had graduated from Harvard and had spoken seven languages. Toward the end of her life, she could not remember who I was, and could barely make a phone call on old-fashioned dial telephone. When my mother realized the mistake she had made, she tried in vain to get released from her expensive contract. I also attempted to help her in this matter, all to no avail. AT&T was relentless and held firm.
I myself was also the victim of corporate greed very recently. I had agreed to try a free trial with a anti-malware protection from a firm called Macpaw (owned by Paddle). Through their service I was infected with a virus. I could not turn off the program or uninstall it. I made multiple attempts to contact Macpaw without any success. They make it virtually impossible to connect to a human and if You miraculously manage to send out an email to them,the chances are nil that they will reply to you in any manner ever.
I recognize in the grand scheme of things, my personal example is a very insignificant issue. Perhaps I’m suffering from too much of a privileged life, but it is rather annoying nevertheless and is very dishonest on their part, to pretend that they have any type of customer service available after they’ve cashed your check. Say goodbye to human interaction with one of their representatives.
My minor inconveniences aside there is a much larger issue here. The unmitigated pursuit of wealth through reasons of greed, is only acceptable when there is no harm done and no price is paid by others. This blind pursuit of greater and greater wealth does more than inconvenience a few privileged people like myself. There are those within our society who are far more vulnerable than I and it is for them, whom we must enact protections. Furthermore there is none more in need of protection than the earth itself. Wanton pursuit of greed and the pursuit of more and more wealth impacts everybody who lives on this fragile sphere. If we continue to impact the Earth, as we are now, there will be no humanity left to share any wealth with at all.
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