Public health consequences of corporate malfeasance: An overview

This session will serve as the introduction to a series of talks on the role of corporations in public health. As moderator, I will introduce the topic of corporations, discuss their nature and goals, identify the reasons for relatively low corporate tax rates, and explain the differences between corporate crime and "street crime." I will discuss the consequences of the last few decades of increasing corporatization on the national and global economy and on labor. I will describe how corporations corrupt the educational system, aggressively lobby elected officials, hide behind corporate front groups, and use aggressive legal tactics to subvert the will of the people and in turn damage public health. I will briefly note a few specific examples, then offer some guidelines for public health professionals on how to combat the maleficent influence of corporations on public health. This talk will be an abridged version of the talk found on the website http://www.publichealthandsocialjustice.org on the "Activism and Education" page. A reference article can be found at http://phsj.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/Combating-corporate-control-of-education-media-legislation-and-health-care-Z-Magazine1.doc.