The Corporations of the World

It turns out that my cell phone account can now be upgraded with a new two-year contract. At first I was quite excited to get a new cell phone but my search for which model to get has ruined my excitement. Why? Greed. There are two cell phones I will use as an example.

My carrier offers one of these cell phones for $80 and the other for $100 out the door. The $80 phone is wonderful - it browses the Internet like a PC, it has tremendous e-mail and business capabilities, and it can run high bandwidth applications easily. Obviously it is a high-end and somewhat expensive phone. The base price on the phone (before contract discounts) is over $400. The $100 phone is far less capable and is only given a more trendy name and color. Why ask $20 more for a phone with a base price far less? Greed.

It has been my experience that most people who are more concerned with popularity, trendiness, and style than values, honor, and compassion are less inclined to "think things through." My cell phone carrier seems to have noticed this too and overcharges their customers who shop for trendy rather than valuable phones - sometimes by a lot. In the past, this would have been called "taking advantage of someone."

Nearly every major corporation now-a-days seems to have no problem taking advantage of their customers. Auto dealerships are another example. The service department at my dealership quoted me at $220+ to change one of my headlight bulbs. They also told me that it was extremely likely that they would also have to replace the ballasts, control center, and/or another part. This was much more common than just the bulb going out, they said. I called around and talked to another professional and they quoted me at under $170 and told me that they has never seen anything but the bulb going out on my model of car. Was the dealership being dishonest with me? Of course I cannot prove it but such experiences are not uncommon and I am sure that you, the Reader, have had similar experiences.

Another corporation charges $50 for an item that costs $17 to manufacture, distribute, and stock. That same corporation charges almost $6 for a small battery that costs about 50 cents to get to the peg in the store. Why? Dishonest greed. Where does that money go? A great portion of it goes directly into the pockets of a very few people at the top levels of the corporate bureaucracy.

Do not misunderstand me - those in higher positions in a company do deserve higher salaries. However, when the head of a company literally makes as much per day as the average employee in their company will make in ten years, something is wrong. When the net salary of a CEO could feed every person in almost any country in Africa for a year, something dishonest or immoral is going on.

Please add any similar experiences you have had in the comments section.