By William Schexnayder
UHCLIDIAN STAFF

Normally, I begin each Sunday morning by first turning to the Houston Chronicle Comics. It is a great way to start the week and reading the comics always brings a smile to my face.

Lately, I have noticed that you can learn more about the issues facing our society today by looking at the comics than by reading the front page of some newspapers.

This was especially true on the morning of Nov. 18. On the front page of the Sunday comics section was an advertisement for The Chair King, offering savings of up to "59 percent off their everyday low prices!"

Looking at this advertisement, a thought occurred to me. When advertisements are appearing on the front page of the comics, too much power is in the hands of business, and this leads me to think that multi-national corporations hold significant power.

Multi-national corporations are everywhere. The continuing growth and power of global corporations poses a serious problem for people and countries around the world.

According to a study by the Institute for Policy Studies titled "Top 200: The Rise of Corporate Global Power" that was republished by the Environmental News Network on Jan. 31, 2001, the balance of global power in the world has shifted from countries to corporations.

According to the article, 51 of the largest 100 economies in the world are corporations, and the combined corporate sales of the top 200 accounted for 27 percent of the world's gross domestic product.

When IPS compared corporate sales and gross domestic product of countries, the numbers showed that General Motors Corp. is bigger than Denmark, IBM is bigger than Singapore, and Sony is bigger than Pakistan.

The problem lies in the fact that even though the largest corporations in the world hold a 27 percent share of the world's economic activity, the top 200 corporations are not large employers.

IPS found that large corporations employ less than 1 percent of the world's workers. The study noted that while corporate profits grew 362.4 percent between 1983 and 1999, the number of people employed by these same companies only increased 14.4 percent.

If corporations continue to control more and more of the world's economic activity while employing fewer and fewer people, the worldıs population will suffer.

If less than 1 percent of the world's work force is employed by corporations that control 27 percent of the world's economy, where does this leave a large percentage of working people? Either looking for work or struggling financially, that's where. When fewer people are able to pay taxes, countries have inadequate income to fund basic services and enforce laws.

I am not saying that all big business is bad. Part of the reason some large corporations employ so few people in respect to their size is simply because advancements in technology have replaced many forms of manual labor.

Also, it is important to point out that some of the top 200 corporations in the world do wonderful things for humanity.

For example, through its Reinventing Education program, IBM has donated more than $70 million over the past decade to U.S. public school teachers. However, programs like this may not be enough to help if most of the world's population is unemployed.

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