Not Yet Explicitly Prohibited

If there is not yet explicit regulation on their newest chemical additive, they wont study it’s effects

Like teens who haven’t developed morality, they smash, grab and slink away in every direction

Closet leaders fear regulations far more than any societal problems their corporate activities create

In fact, they pay gibberish-speaking lawyers fortunes to amorally circumvent good faith legislation

But they make up for it with warm and folksy ads glorifying their respect and love for their people

Technically avoiding doing what is right is a profitable game they’ve rigged, and they play hardball

Fact is, if you don’t ease up on the intrusive regulations, they’ll find tax breaks someplace that will

And how the workers clamor for jobs they provide that keep their families just at the poverty line

They’ll tell you to your face that mining waste cleanup truly has no place on their income statements

Besides, no rules prohibited them declaring bankruptcy, moving away and leaving us a mess behind

It was more profitable to fight health claims for years in court rather than to aid sick ex-employees

They are not responsible for outsourced ingredients, manufacturing or design, and so it should stay

Sagely they take advantage of lower labor costs overseas, helping everyone to an equal poverty level

They trumpet their social advances even though their workers cannot afford the items they produce

But, lo, their own payouts increase yearly, just as surely as healthcare costs and defense outlays

Loading loan fund tranches with dogs and hedging against their purchasers was not explicitly illegal

They’ll spin off unprofitable divisions so fast it makes their workers heads spin in unemployment lines

They routinely swallow up each other using that merge, cut labor 20% and reap-a-fat-bonus formula

Their empty ruthlessness masked by folksy spokespeople pushing an expensive but empty spin

Accountants advise them it’s more profitable to buy research than to stop poisoning mother’s milk

Their fanatical need to money and power is genetically free of any element of social responsibility

Safe behind anonymizing corporate doors they freely exercise their compulsive and narrow excesses

Their lack of empathy regarding the effect of their actions on others is just vile corporate sociopathy

Like deceitful pre-adolescents, their complicated defense is really: You never said not to do Tha-yat

They take full $credit for success but deny any knowledge and control when ‘excesses’ are revealed

It’s funny how their expensive expertise transfers from soft drinks to computer software, undiluted

But don’t you try to get a job in another field without both Years of training and Lots of experience

And don’t forget their legacies – fictionalized biographies, as artificial as their bogus press releases

When legislation finally comes, their cleanup is grandfathered out and off they go to freer markets

They cancel pensions to remain competitive but their ironclad contracts pay off come profit or loss

Their glitzy stories change with each co-opted social movement but they never lose their real focus

They lobby fiercely against rules to cure side-effects any moral being would have fixed on their own

They waltz off to re-appear under different corporate names with their bonuses and org-charts intact

They follow the letter of the law, profiting on the not-yet-explicitly-prohibited for as long as possible

Quietly pulling strings, pushing buttons and making donations, they flourish outside of governments

Vain little banty roosters in tailored suits strutting adroitly around laws their own lawyers crafted