Cincinnati's corporate empire

I know that these days Cincinnati looks like a great bastion of progress compared to, say, a Florida suburb or that county in Idaho where they put teenage girls in jail if they become pregnant. But the fact is that the Cincinnati region in the '80s and '90s was America's epicenter of corporate autocracy. Corporate power was accompanied by the bad politics that it always brings, which is why Cincinnati at the time was the most politically conservative major urban area in America. Along with these policies came much despair.

Even today, after some residents have worked hard to restore the area's good name, the stench of corporatism still lingers in Cincinnati like an egg fart. The corporate empire remains powerful enough in the 'Nati that a report released just this year says the region is dominated by only 7 big corporations. This oligopoly still controls the area's economy, politics, and the very fabric of Cincinnati life. The study confirms that Cincinnati's corporate power structure creates poverty, enormous gaps between the rich and poor, and "distorted development."

The 7 corporations dominating Cincinnati are: frightening consumer products giant Procter & Gamble; the Kroger supermarket chain; Macy's (Federated Department Stores); Fifth Third Bank; Western & Southern Financial Group; the Lindners' American Financial Corp; and E.W. Scripps, which ran the right-wing Cincinnati Post. Corporate Cincinnati has a "rule by decree" mentality in which major companies form what amount to think tanks that help guide public policies, privatize public tasks, usurp the will of the people, criminalize the disadvantaged, and exclude the working class. This is also a main reason Cincinnati is the third-poorest city of its size in America.

Corporate groupthink became so entrenched in Cincinnati by the '90s that it actually became a religion: This ideology has doctrines and rites, and criticism of it became taboo. Speak ill of the 'Nati's corporations, and you hear about it instantly. Upon hearing this criticism, an adherent of Cincinnati corporatism may first let out a mild but disappointed sigh through the nostrils (if their nose isn't stuffed up from the various respiratory ailments caused by the poor health standards brung by their corporate allies). If the criticism continues, a somewhat louder sigh emerges from the mouth. Then comes the gaze, and maybe a scowl. Then the annoying whimper: It's like a frustrated "yeah" that increases in loudness and pitch.

Then finally the harangue.

In this final step, you're treated to an operatic skeeping about how the area's corporations have done sooooo much for you, just by being such good corporate citizens and all.

Criticize the corporate world in Cincinnati sometime. Note this series of irritated reactions from Big Business's apologists.

But the area's working class residents share a common interest with each other in dissenting from the corporate empire and moving the city away from this oligopoly. Corporate domination isn't sustainable in any city.

(Source: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/cincinnati230108.html)