“Welcome to the jungle, welcome to the jungle well, goddammit”
-Jay Z and Kanye West
Last semester I had the opportunity to attend a lecture by Harvard sociologist Carly Knight. In it, she presented her research on the ways in which corporations are personified and discussed as humans in media and popular rhetoric. Instead of being the collection of private interests, they’ve moved in the public imagination to being discussed as people and in the legal realm as entities with the same rights as citizens (think the now infamous citizens united Supreme Court ruling that essentially allows corporations to finance elections). This means that corporations can lobby for their self interests; interests that in unfettered capitalism are concerned with efficiency and profit maximization. As such, corporations and big businesses often fail to consider public and societal interests. I’d like to be clear that I’m not necessarily anti-business or anti-corporations but rather pro-people and pro-society. Corporations should work for people, not the other way around. As I reflect on my first year in office, I can’t help but feel disgusted by the ways in which businesses and corporations have taken priority over individuals. The Amazon campaign for the company’s second headquarters is a perfect example for how we’ve been brought to our knees by corporations. Two hundred and thirty eight cities and towns across America applied to the challenge (including Central Falls). In the applications, municipalities were asked to outline why they should be granted the “privilege” of having Amazon come to them. These proposals had to speak to certain criteria that the company delineated in its call. The “challenge” is really a demand for a dowry. One of the most important parts of this “dowry” is the tax cuts that the company will receive. Tax cuts that serve the interest of profit maximization. In my hometown, the Miami Heat brokered a deal to build the American Airlines Arena on Biscayne Boulevard with little to no cost to them through 2030. Though the organization has brought in millions of dollars in the last decade, the city has received pennies for its efforts. Central Falls’ sister city of Pawtucket is currently facing a similar dilemma: use tax dollars to supplement the cost of the new PawSox stadium or let the team go elsewhere for its new home. I would love for the team to remain in Pawtucket but I think it’s inhumane to put their interests over those of every day people.
Government and public infrastructure relies on taxes. We live in an era of tea party rhetoric that espouses limited government and low taxes. How exactly do you drive your Porsche to your yacht without a public road or a public dock? When was the last time a wealthy person paved a road? (my father helped lay the cement in his block in Copacabana, Antioquia) Why do taxes get such a bad rap? I’m totally down for the “no taxation without representation” movement but I’m also down for the “tax us and build us” movement. We use taxes to build schools, fund public safety institutions, pave roads, fund youth programming, fund elderly programming, provide health benefits for the needy, and a plethora of other things. If we are to “ease up” on taxes then we should demand more from private institutions. In the 1800s, private companies partnered with the government to build the transcontinental railroad. That partnership yielded public infrastructure that benefited the private companies and the general public. Today, corporations demand that cities pimp themselves out in the form of tax cuts with the promise of “jobs” in return. The private-public partnership has devolved into a public courtship of private deals which favor the wealthy and undermine the public interest.
I live in and represent a city that was crumbled by industrialization, the war on drugs, the longest state takeover of a public school district in American history, and the 2008 economic crash. Part of what makes governance in the city difficult is that we have a small tax base and a relatively small budget (roughly 19 million. For context, the Central Falls School District’s budget is roughly 39 million).Like Pawtucket, Central Falls is faced with the paradox of trying to attract businesses (often with tax breaks) while increasing our tax base (with the hopes of providing more services for our residents and a better infrastructure). Every few months, we’re faced with making decisions on public-private deals that ask for low tax rates and/or exemptions. While I’m not usually an advocate of moderation, I believe in Karl Polanyi’s philosophy that markets (and corporations by extension) should be regulated by society and not the other way around. Why are we shackled by the demands of corporations? Why do we allow our tax dollars to subsidize the costs of wealthy corporations? For every proposal, it should be society demanding that corporations answer the question first posed by Janet Jackson in the 80s: “what have you done for [us] lately?” We should go further to ask “what will you do for [us] in the future?” The promise of jobs is an elusive and shallow floor. That promise should be the minimum that large business and corporations offer. We need public-private partnerships that benefit us all and not just the shareholders. In Central Falls, I dream of a day where we’ve gotten rid of the private for-profit detention center in our city and we collaborate with businesses and corporations that care about the people in the city and not just their quarterly statements.