Robert Kuttner: Beware of Corporate Do-Gooding (Boston Globe, via CommonDreams)

[marmar]

Published on Saturday, March 3, 2007 by the Boston Globe
Beware of Corporate Do-Gooding
by Robert Kuttner

WHENEVER hugely profitable corporations mount a charm offensive, keep your hand on your wallet. Consider the current epidemic of corporate do-gooding.
Item: Wal-Mart, under fire for paying less than a living wage, has gone on an all-out public relations campaign to change the subject -- to almost any good cause. Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott had a press conference with Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union, to pledge mutual support for universal health insurance (details to come later). The company unveiled a program to press Wal-Mart suppliers to hire a more a diverse workforce (an issue Wal-Mart's critics had not raised ). Wal-Mart's new "Sustainability 360" program is a wet kiss for environmentalists.

Wal-Mart even belatedly endorsed a higher minimum wage -- its workers make just above minimum wage -- though the retailer is not lobbying seriously to promote minimum-wage legislation. But with all of this warm, fuzzy outreach on every issue but its own low wages, Wal-Mart is not altering its core cheap-labor strategy. And it's far from clear who is using whom.

Item: Astra-Zenica, which makes the blockbuster indigestion drug Prilosec, has an advertising campaign headlined "A Simple Way to Get More Out Of Medicare Part D." The ads point to the annoying "doughnut hole" that causes elderly people to lose drug coverage once total annual claims hit about $2,400.

Astra-Zenica's helpful hint? Buy over-the-counter Prilosec (for about $400 a year) rather than its generic prescription equivalent Omeprazole, and delay hitting the doughnut hole. (Net consumer financial gain: zero.) What Astra-Zenica doesn't say is that the coverage gap resulted from the drug industry campaign to prevent Medicare from offering a more cost-effective public drug plan. Nor does it tell you that even though Prilosec is now off-patent, Astra-Zenica's manipulations of the FDA has kept the generic equivalent far more costly than it should be. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0303-25.htm

[billybob537]

1. Right then

"The company unveiled a program to press Wal-Mart suppliers to hire a more diverse workforce" How the hell are you going to get China to hire forieners? Don't you realize who Wal-Mart's suppliers are?