Someone asked if there are multinationals present in the United States, and if so, why they do not negatively impact the conditions in the society and the economy.
The answer is that, yes of course, there are multinationals in the US. Most of the largest multinationals in the world began in the US and many are still headquartered there. Though also many have moved corporate headquarters out of the country. Halliburton, for instance, has corporate headquarters in Dubai.
The process known as ‘Globalization”, which essentially means the development of global corporate imperialism, began with the rise of corporate power within the US, and the unparalleled influence of business over the government; and yes, this has had a tremendously negative impact on social policy and the American economy.
Income inequality has steadily increased in the US, without interruption, over the last 30 years, until today the richest 0.1% of the population own over 20% of the wealth. That means that the richest 160,000 people own more wealth than the poorest 45 million people in the Unites States. That inequality translates to inequality in education, healthcare, opportunity, security, and even life expectancy.
To maximize corporate profits, American companies pushed for “Free Trade” agreements like NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), to allow them to shift manufacturing facilities outside the country, leading to hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, and devastating the economies of states like Michigan. The largest city in Michigan, Detroit, has actually even declared bankruptcy.
The neoliberal policies are being applied in the US, against the population, because multinational corporations are increasingly losing any nationalistic tendencies they may have had, and no population is treated preferentially. Social welfare spending, spending on public education, healthcare, and so on, have all been cut dramatically. Labor unions have been crushed, workers’ rights are disregarded, and wages have gone down. More people die in the US from unsafe conditions at work, than from homicide
More than 46 million people in the US live in poverty. The US has the highest infant mortality rate in the developed world, and spends less on social support programs than almost any other. Meanwhile, the government pumps billions of tax dollars into the private sector to enrich major corporations and banks.
Most Americans are in debt, work longer hours than their counterparts in any other developed country, and live from paycheck to paycheck, and parents can expect that their children will be poorer as adults than they are themselves.
All of this is due to the power of multinational corporations.