AUSTIN, Texas -- We need to have a discussion about our culture. It's about
the Pizza Hut ad on the space rocket. Does the word "tacky" occur to you?
The commercialization of absolutely everything has gone too far. I realize
the Pizza Hut people paid $2.5 million for the ad space and the Russian
government is slightly desperate, but -- Pizza Hut? Not that it would have
been better if it had been some technology firm, but -- Pizza Hut?
Corporations put ads on fruit, ads all over the schools, ads on cars, ads
on clothes. The only place you can't find ads is where they belong: on
politicians.
I believe it was former state Ag Commish Jim Hightower who first suggested
pols should dress like NASCAR drivers, covered with the patches of their
corporate sponsors. G.W. Bush should be wearing an Enron gimme cap and an
Exxon breast patch, and have Microsoft embroidered on one side of his shirt
and assorted insurance companies on the other. Ditto Gore, with a slight
change of sponsors. Very slight.
In 1994, Congress passed the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, an initiative
started by President Bush and supported by Bill Clinton. The basis for the
act was a report called "Reinventing Education: Entrepreneurship in
America's Public Schools," which was co-authored by one Lou Gerstner.
Gerstner is not an educator with long years of experience in the public
schools. He is the CEO of the IBM Corp., which is why the report on which we
are basing our school standards defines students as "human capital" and
urges schools to compare themselves to each other as "Xerox compares itself
to L.L. Bean for inventory control."
All those little chunks of human capital (who used to be children) must be
put into uniforms and subject to standards and discipline, like so many
little cans of peas.
As the Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy points out, there is a
further irony in having the Goals 2000 follow-up meeting set up by a
planning committee that included IBM, AT&T, Eastman Kodak, Procter & Gamble,
etc. As you know, the schools are mostly supported by local property taxes.
The Ohio Department of Taxation reports that in 1998, local governments
exempted nearly $3 billion worth of corporate-owned property (and itself)
from taxes in Ohio. The Program on Corporations reports, "Conservatively
estimated, at least that much and probably more in personal property
(buildings, equipment, machinery) has been exempted."
As you also know, whenever a corporation threatens to leave a community, it
is promptly offered a huge tax break. The Program on Corporations reports:
"When Owens-Corning Corp. officials threatened to move company headquarters
just outside the city limits, Toledo taxpayers coughed up a $25 million tax
break, worth $1.2 million annually, plus a $10 million cash grant. Company
directors used the first two years' tax savings to pay CEO Glen Hiner's
bonus. ...
"Of course, when schools need more than mere handouts, they ask voters to
raise taxes. With astounding audacity, the boldest corporate tax evaders
then help bankroll the campaign to pass the levy -- from everyone without an
abatement."
And then there are the cut-to-the-chase corporations that just run schools
for profit. There are 200 schools around the country simply run by
for-profit corporations like Edison Schools Inc. to cash in on the $700
billion "education industry."
I grant you, there are other matters cultural for Andy Rooney grumps to
worry about. I myself am concerned about the spread of the phrase "companion
animal" for pets.
But the corporatization of the culture is more than just tacky. It is a
threat to democracy, to small packages of "human capital" and other living
things. Now, if we could persuade the arbiters of culture to spend as much
time worrying about corporatization as they do about the absurd excesses of
political correctness, we might have a chance of fighting back.
Molly Ivins is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. To find out
more about Molly Ivins and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers
and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at
www.creators.com.
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