[corp-focus] Big Business Is Even More Unpopular Than You Think

[robert weissman]

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Big Business Is Even More Unpopular Than You Think
By Robert Weissman
January 15, 2008

The U.S. public holds Big Business in shockingly low regard.

A November 2007 Harris poll found that less than 15 percent of the 
population believes each of the following industries to be "generally 
honest and trustworthy:" tobacco companies (3 percent); oil companies (3 
percent); managed care companies such as HMOs (5 percent); health 
insurance companies (7 percent); telephone companies (10 percent); life 
insurance companies (10 percent); online retailers (10 percent); 
pharmaceutical and drug companies (11 percent); car manufacturers (11 
percent); airlines (11 percent); packaged food companies (12 percent); 
electric and gas utilities (15 percent). Only 32 percent of adults said 
they trusted the best-rated industry about which Harris surveyed, 
supermarkets.[1]

These are remarkable numbers. It is very hard to get this degree of 
agreement about anything. By way of comparison, 79 percent of adults 
believe the earth revolves around the sun; 18 percent say it is the 
other way around.[2]

The Harris results are not an aberration. The results have not varied 
considerably over the past five years -- although overall trust levels 
have actually declined from the already very low threshold in 2003.

The Harris results are also in line with an array of polling data 
showing deep concern about concentrated corporate power.

An amazing 84 percent told Harris in a poll earlier in 2007 that big 
companies have too much power in Washington. By contrast, only 47 
percent said that labor unions have too much power in Washington (as 
against 42 percent who said labor has too little power), and 18 percent 
who said nonprofit organizations have too much power in Washington.[3]

These results have proven durable. At least 80 percent of the public has 
ranked big companies as having too much power in Washington since 1994. 
In 2000, Business Week and Harris asked a broader question: Has business 
gained too much power over too many aspects of American life? 
Seventy-four percent agreed.[4]

The November 2007 poll also asked about support for measures to control 
corporations. These results are eye-opening as well, though perhaps not 
in the expected way.

Harris asked which industries "should be more regulated by government -- 
for example for health, safety or environmental reasons -- than they are 
now?" Only oil companies (53 percent), pharmaceutical companies (53 
percent) and health insurance companies (52 percent) crossed the 50 
percent threshold. Even the tobacco industry managed to escape in the 
survey with only 41 percent favoring greater regulation. These data 
trend significantly negative -- against greater regulation -- over the 
last five years.

Does this show that while people distrust Big Business, they equally 
distrust the government to constrain corporate power?

No.

The U.S. skepticism to regulation is only skin deep. When polls present 
specific regulatory proposals for consideration, U.S. public support is 
typically strong and often overwhelming -- even when arguments against 
government action are presented.

For example:

* After hearing arguments for and against, 76 percent favor granting the 
Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over tobacco, with 22 
percent opposed.[5]

* After hearing arguments for and against, 75 percent favor legislation 
that would significantly increase energy efficiency, including auto fuel 
efficiency standards, and the use of renewable energy.[6]

* Eighty-five percent favor country-of-origin labeling for meat, 
seafood, produce and grocery products, and three quarters favor a 
legislative mandate.[7]

* Seventy-one percent say it is important that drugs remain under close 
review by the FDA and drug companies after they have been placed on the 
market.[8]

* And, from a Harris finding a week after the poll showing skepticism 
about industry regulation in general, the polling agency found that 
those who think there is too little government regulation in the area of 
environmental protection outpaced those who think there is too much by a 
more than 2-to-1 margin (53 to 21 percent).[9]

What the Harris findings on attitudes to regulation do show is that the 
business campaign against regulation as an abstract concept has been 
very successful.

It highlights the need for consumer, environmental, labor and other 
corporate accountability advocates to defend the concept of regulation, 
and to connect the rampant corporate abuses in society with the 
deregulation and non-regulatory failures of the last three decades. 
There's little doubt that the general public attitude toward regulation 
significantly affects the willingness of politicians -- none to eager to 
offend business patrons in the first place -- to take on corporate power.


[1] http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=825

[2] 
http://www.gallup.com/poll/3742/New-Poll-Gauges-Americans-General-Knowledge-Levels.aspx

[3] http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=737

[4] http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_37/b3698004.htm

[5] http://tobaccofreekids.org/fdapoll/national.pdf

[6] http://www.consumerfed.org/pdfs/No_Time_To_Waste.pdf

[7] http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1970

[8] http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=716

[9] http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=828


Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational 
Monitor, <http://www.multinationalmonitor.org> and director of Essential 
Action <http://www.essentialaction.org>.

(c) Robert Weissman

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