The 20 Mega Corporations Who Are Controlling And Shaping You

While we are all born with minds of mush… a blank slate… over our lifetimes we are controlled and shaped by many things. These 20 mega corporations currently have a great influence on the lives of Americans and ‘who’ they end up becoming.

Here is who they are, and their chairman, president, and/or CEO…

These Ten mega corporations and their interwoven supply chains control the output of almost everything you buy.

KRAFT (John Cahill, Tony Vernon)
COCA COLA (Muhtar Kent)
PEPSICO (Indra Nooyi)
GENERAL MILLS (Kendall Powell)
KELLOG’S (James Jenness, John Bryant)
MARS (Steven Badger, Paul Michaels)
UNILEVER (Michael Treschchow, Paul Polman)
JOHNSON & JOHNSON (William Weldon, Alex Gorsky)
P&G (A.G. Lafley)
NESTLE (Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Paul Bulcke)

90% of the media is now controlled by just six companies, down from 50 in 1983. Nearly everything you think you know about the news (and your entertainment) is shaped from these six mega media companies.

GE (Jeffrey Immelt)
NEWSCORP (Rupert Murdoch, Chase Carey)
DISNEY (Bob Iger)
VIACOM (Sumner Redstone, Philippe Dauman)
TIME WARNER (Jeffrey Bewkes)
CBS (Leslie Moonves)

37 top banks have merged to become these four mega banks in a little over two decades, while the nation’s 10 largest financial institutions hold 54% of our total financial assets.

JPMORGAN CHASE
(Jamie Dimon)
BANK OF AMERICA (Charles Holliday, Brian Moynihan)
CITIGROUP (Michael O’Neill, Michael Corbat)
WELLS FARGO (John Stumpf)

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original infographic image source: unknown

Full Size Infographic

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original infographic image source: unknown

four-largest-banks-in-us

Although I am not anti-capitalist, I have always been of the opinion that it would be much healthier (for a nation) to prevent giant mega corporations from becoming who they are… too large and powerful — which enables them to become monopolistic and too controlling of our lives, with influence over our politicians who ‘really’ represent big money more than they represent us as individuals.

There is (in my opinion) much systemic risk when too few control the distribution channels and products (of whatever) which too many are literally dependent upon.

Billions of us are controlled and influenced by so few…

There is seemingly little that we can do about it at this point, given that our political system in general has become corrupt at all levels right to the top. We’ve allowed it to happen right under our noses. In any event, I thought you would be curious to know the top-20 mega corps who are influencing you whether you realize it or not…

34 Comments

  1. There used to be regulations and laws in place to stop this massive concentration of money and power in to so few hands. They have been eaten slowly away by armies of lobbyists paid for with billions of dollars of corporate money. That a bank has anything approaching a trillion dollars within it’s control is beyond frightening all by itself, but we have several mega-behemoths controlling tens of trillions of dollars at this very moment.

    Concentrated wealth is the poison of society. When people become so rich and powerful that they can get away with major crimes with only a wrist slap, we’ve lost our moral compass. When people can control so much money that the interest on that sum is enough to feed the population of a small country, we’ve lost sight of reality altogether. People like Jamie Dimon and his ilk are the reason we have lost so much of our standard of living. When I was a kid, my dad could comfortably provide for the family and have enough left over for savings and a vacation here and there. Now, tow incomes is often times not enough.

    I have nothing against someone having a lot of money. What I have a problem with is extreme concentration of wealth and power, and then in to just a few hands. Once you reach the level of billionaire, you have the ability to influence politicians and policy. That my friends, is the real danger here.

    1. Wrong!
      “When he was a kid” the executive made $60 for every dollar the worker did. Today the executive makes $300 for every dollar that the worker makes. If minimum wage kept pace with executive pay it would be $35 an hour. This has nothing to do with government or taxes. You are defending horrific greed. Corporate welfare outspends welfare for the poor ten to one. Lobbying and greed. In your previous post you said government is the problem. The government is a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate america. Follow the problem to its root and you find corporations in control.

      1. Indeed that is the communist manifesto. But it is simply wrong. Why would you care how much a rich person makes? What you should be concerned with is how much you make and how much you get to keep. The richest entity in this is the federal government. Just their deficit for one year exceeds all the assets all the millionaires and billionaires in America own put together. So it is the government and the taxes they take from you that is killing the middle class. You can waste your time being jealous of rich people or you can take care of business and improve your own life. The choice is yours.

        As you ramble on through life
        whatever be your goal
        keep your eye upon the doughnut
        and not upon the hole

        1. GWTW, you are kind of missing the point I think. The problem with a mega-corporation like Wal-Mart, is they destroy small businesses. Period. They bring in low wage jobs, most of them part-time gigs with no benefits. In addition, many of those workers are actually counseled on how to apply for .Gov benefit programs like SNAP, WIC and TNAF, because the parent company knows damn well that $8.25 is not enough to live on. We the People subsidize their business model. The same can be said for places like McDonalds. When low wage jobs make up the bulk of the opportunities available, we’re kind of screwed. Giant corporations can afford to spend hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying congress for favorable legislation. Remember the Monsanto Protection Act? That piece of crap was slid in to a bill in the dark of night with NO debate. Look up HR 733. That monstrosity was included in a larger bill and it would have striped federal courts of the authority to halt the sale and propagation of genetically modified seeds and crops if safety tests reveal concerns about their safety. This is absolutely diabolical. It took a lot of public pressure to remove this language from the bill, but it was finally removed. That it was even passed in the first place amazes me. To give a corporation carte blanche is incredibly dangerous, and it would have allowed Monsanto to essentially use us as guinea pigs to experiment their ‘franken foods’ on without our knowledge or consent.

          This is not about jealousy, it is about our way of life. There is a reason that laws such as The Sherman Anti-Trust Act were written, and it is because concentrated wealth leads to nothing but corruption. None of us here hold any grudges about money, and I personally have no problem with someone amassing money, it’s when it becomes multiple tens of billions of dollars that are concentrated as a result of monopolizing industry. Wal-Mart is in my opinion, a monopoly. They have far, far too large a portion of the retail market today. They have driven companies out of business that served communities for multiple generations and destroyed entire communities, all in the name of money.

        2. I’m curious Ancona. Wouldn’t these same people be on the welfare roles,collecting SNAP and medical benefits ect whether Walmart employed them or not? Also I have always wondered why people blame Walmart for putting the mom and pops out of business when it is the people that switched their loyalty from those stores to Walmart to save a couple of dollars that caused them to fold. I hate to say it but the American people can no longer see past their wallet today to understand that the money that went into the mom and pop stores stayed in the community and provided for your neighbors to eat,send their children to school,support local sports and charity’s ect. This is where the real breakdown in our society starts. Its the same thing with people buying the Chinese junk that is being sold. If folks refused to do this, companies would go back to making things in America and providing jobs.These large corporations fill a demand,take that away and they would go away also.

        3. Ditto what Ancona just said. GWTW, you seem to be missting the point. It’s not about jealousy (at least not to me, and probably not to most preppers who read this).

        4. Wal-Mart doesn’t pay 11.00 an hour it pays 7.50 an hour. And YES Wal-Mart has put ALOT of people out of business and they are a crappy place to work. They treat you like a dog and expect you to kiss their ***. I would rather give my money away than go to a Wal-Mart! Get your facts straight about wages before you come online and start talking about how good they are. You must be a Wal-Mart executive or something. Wal-Mart cares NOTHING about others only them selves. Get real 11.00 and hour get your facts straight GoneWithTheWind! 11.00 and hour right!

        5. The average Walmart associate makes $11.75 an hour. That’s $20,744 per year. They employ 1% of American workers. It doesn’t look like a crappy place to work and I know Walmart workers and they like their job. But anyone who doesn’t like it there is free to look elsewhere, isn’t freedom great?
          Walmart can’t put people out of business. The government can and does but Walmart can only sell goods at competitive prices, nothing more, nothing less.

        6. What ever I know what they pay. You keep thinking they pay that. Go shopping there and give them your money also.

        7. Walmart can’t put people out of business? Really? You think that?

          Walmart’s “competive” prices are in large part due to price breaks through volume. They have becom so huge that they can get the best prices from manufacturers based on huge volume discounts. No other business can compete with the current volume that Walmart has. So this fact puts others out of business because they cannot compete. At least if there is a Walmart nearby.

          I understand that this is “just business”, but to what end? The normal progression will be for one company to control, sell, distribute everything. Period. Is this a good thing? I don’t think so.

          I’m for money being put back into the local community. Localy owned stores keep most of the money local. Big corporations suck the money out of the local community (not so good for the growth of the community). Make sense?

          It is true that in the beginning, people have choices where to shop and spend their mnoney. Many of them will opt for the cheaper store (Walmart), and they do enable the growth by doing so. Is it good for the community? I don’t think so. Why do the people do it? Because I guess it is largely human nature.

          What is the answer? I don’t know exactly. But I do know that big corporations like Walmart are not as good for a community as locally owned smaller stores. Unfortunately it is a thing of the past. Maybe I am too much an idealist.

        8. I have no doubt that stores big and small have gone out of business because they were unable to compete with Walmart. But why? I know for a fact that many of these companies were being strangled by unions. They simply couldn’t sell products as cheaply as Walmart can. Now if you are pro-union this outrages you, but if you are pro-consumer then you are happy with Walmart.

          Keeping money in the community? Really! This is a oft stated fallacy of those who hate Walmart. So, pretty much all the stores sell the same things. Your levi’s are made in Taiwan or Mexico depending on which brand you buy. So if you buy your levi’s from some local store the money still goes overseas. As for employees 99% of Walmarts employees live and work in the community. How is that different from some mom and pop store?

          You need to reread the constitution. The owners of Walmart or any large business have rights and they certainly have the right to grow their business as long as they don’t break any laws. Why would you want to tie their hands behind their back? I don’t see a problem. Coincidently I just came back from Walmart AND from a grocery store that beats Walmart’s food prices. See, I have choices.

        9. Gone With The Wind says “So if you buy your levi’s from some local store the money still goes overseas.”

          You are missing something. Think about it. The PROFITS of the local store owner will probably remain in the local community. The PROFITS of Walmart (as an example) will NOT stay in the local comminity. Get it? I know it’s hard to understand. Not talking about the cost of manufacturing here – I’m talking abouit the profits of a business. Make sense?

        10. That does make sense, which is probably why so many people buy into it without a second thought. But most of Walmarts competition is large corporations and they to have head quarters somewhere. So where do these profits end up? In a giant vault like old Scrooge McDuck had? No they are distributed to the stockholders many of whom live in the community. And where does the money paid out as wages go? Again to the people who live in the community. It’s just as likely that the mom and pop store owners are buying a retirement condo in Florida with their profits and thus the money is leaving the community anyway. This idea of spend locally if carried to an extreme is merely a soft bigotry. Not to say the concept is all wrong but more along the lines of it isn’t either correct (in that the money goes all over the place no matter where you spend it) and the global economy makes the effort almost impossible.
          I buy corn on the cob down the street at the “farmers market”. It’s good corn, the guy is local and that’s all good right? But the corn is grown in Mexico. His apples come from the next state over even though we grow great apples right here (our states apples are mostly sold in Japan). I have never owned a foreign car but parts of all the American cars I have owned were indeed made in other countries. “Buying local” is self delusion.

        11. To Gone With The Wind, I will agree to disagree with you. We have different outlooks on this and that’s just the way it is.

        12. Yeah maybe if your in some sort of supervisory position. Outside of that they pay or maybe a couple of dollars over minimum wage. Plus which this is also true cause I did work for Wal-Mart at one time. Anyone who’s ever worked at a wal-mart knows that if you didn’t complete a task before your shift was over with. You had to punch out and finish the task before you left for the day. And they always drop innuendos as to what would happen if you didn’t. And I’m talking from first hand experience. So sure go work for wal-mart if you want.

        13. To all the comments before.and following to truths and lies the problems are the complaining as well for not wanting to believe what they fearfully know in there hearts that is. The organized religous system’s are the supporters for the corrupt government. So there is the Anti Christ supporting the Beast both all ready here . No taxes for them if you support one another and they do that very well.

    2. But we cant forget that the politicians are eager to allow themselves to be influenced by money.

  2. The banksters of the likes of Jamie Dimon, and the Goldman Sachs crowd are in collusion with the FED, and the federal government to facilitate the screwing of the American people, especially the middle class.

    Big money pays lobbyists to get their way or ways that are favorable to them. This includes the interests of the biggest corporations. To not realize this fact is dillusional thinking.

    1. I don’t advocate violence, but from a historical perspective it was the vast chasm between the rich and poor that led to the French Revolution and subsequent downfalls of the monarchy system in europe. Many died because of wealth inequity. If the elites of this country were smart they would change ‘business as usual’ before history begins repeating itself.

      1. Those who forget history will make the same mistakes. Those who seek to prevent history from repeating itself. Will seek to control everything that they can so their vast wealth stays intact.

  3. Ken,
    I would add these are just the corporations we can see. I’ve discovered in my own research on who are ‘the powers that be’ that the wealthiest corporations that hold vast amounts of this countries money are corporations we’ve never heard of. The names of the most important corporations are never in the media and don’t advertise on television. I found it rather creepy.

  4. should Google be in the list?

    just been reading about the Giant Barges Google is constructin, sounds Creepy, and sounds like hand in hand with some lettered agencies???

    Google’s mysterious barges raise concerns
    Construction taking place in environmentally sensitive San Francisco Bay
    The Associated Press Posted: Nov 05, 2013 3:34 PM ET Last Updated: Nov 05, 2013 3:37 PM ET

    Construction supplies for the San Francisco barges are kept onshore in hangars rented by a Delaware corporation named By and Large under a $79,000-per-month lease that expires next August. (Stephen Lam/Reuters)

    San Francisco’s mayor says he doesn’t know what it is. Police say it’s not their jurisdiction. And government inspectors are sworn to secrecy.

    Google is erecting a four-story structure in the heart of the San Francisco Bay but is managing to conceal its purpose by constructing it on docked barges instead of on land, where city building permits and public plans are mandatory. Construction became obvious a few weeks ago.

    The internet giant’s actions at Treasure Island appear legal. But the mystery surrounding the bulky floating building — and a similar one off Portland, Maine — is generating rumors and worries

    Privacy experts, environmentalists and legal authorities say that whether it is a store to sell Google’s internet-connected glasses, a data storage center or something else,

    Google’s usually responsive media relations team did not respond to repeated calls or emails over several days, but records and other official accounts identify the project as Google’s.

    No need for permits
    Google has dodged public scrutiny by essentially constructing a vessel, not a building. Thus it doesn’t need permits from San Francisco, a city with copious inspection and paperwork requirements for builders.

    Google has also avoided the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, a state agency that governs projects on the water and has its own long list of public reviews and permit requirements

  5. You people who want to blame the government amaze me….who do you think owns the government but these big corporations. This isn’t capitalism at all.

    1. That’s right Wendy, BIG CORPORATIONS do OWN the government. Not saying here that they are the only reason for some of the mess we’re in, we have ourselves to blame for allowing our government to become corrupted by big money and big interests. There are too many of us who don’t care and that is why it has happened. Sigh.

      1. Well don’t feel too down about it. It’s call social engineering. A little bit of movie magic here a water treatment there. And throw in a bunch of other crap into the mix and walla. You end up with present day people.

  6. To all who think it is not corporation of a select group of people look up the ominous quotes by Woodrow Wilson regarding a shadow group of men who ruled and Eisenhower quote about the military industrial complex. To those who don’t think it is the government, these people have concentrated and corrupted a document (constitution) and a government. There is absolutely no way to fix this with having the “right people” in power. The only way to fix it is by severely limiting the power and size of the government. Ways to do that are limit its budget, limit terms, reform the supreme court, limit executive orders etc.

  7. unless its legislated that no business corporation or business company would grow beyond a certain ceiling laid down , the bigger fish woud keep eating up the smaller fish until only two big fish would survive and public , the government would be at their mercy. in fact thats happened in politics already with just two big political parties surviving now and one is forced into one or the other , no choice . in the outside world also it has happened , with only two super powers remaining .

    in the process its DEMOCRACY that has become the casualty. Where is people’s Government made by the people , of the people and FOR THE PEOPLE disappeared ? Wither is fled that visionary gleam?where is it gone the glory and dream of DEMOCRACY?

    Everything needs controls, and need be regulated . People must get actively involved and supervise the working of all aspects , all institutions, all corporations, all banks and all enterprises. No one should be trusted to regulate themselves in this greedy world of humans . Slogans like “Less government is better government” is illusionary floated as real by vested business interests. Health and wealth of a nation should be measured not by the average income of an individual but by measure of the gap between the highest and lowest income of individuals. The lower the gap the better the economic health and human happiness of the Nation.

    Neither individuals nor institutions or business corporations should be allowed to grow sky high or to proportions to hit the “too big to fail ” levels . Restrictive and monopoly trade practices are to be punished punitively and implemented strictly like the FDA implementing purity in food items.

    Welfare measures such as Health care ,and Education need to be fully subsidized and should never ever be allowed to be commercialized in any of its components like pharmaceuticals and health insurance . In fact people’s Government should run their own schools , universities, pharmaceuticals and insurance companies , and banking to offer stiff competition to private enterprise in these fields.

    In the ballot paper there should be a NOTA option ( None Of The Above candidates ) . If NOTA gets majority of votes that election should be nullified and all the candidates changed for the next round and this will go on ,until one of the candidates score more than 50% of votes polled.

    Greed cannot be eradicated but could be contained , monitored and curbed and not allowed to grow uncontrollably. Business must make reasonable profits . Corporations must create jobs and wealth (thats their role and function in the scheme of things ) . wealth creation is not a sin . But its wealth distribution which is at fault .while wealth creation is the job of business of trade and commerce ,wealth redistribution is the prime job of the people’s Government . Hence strictly speaking its NOT the corporations that have failed the nation its the Government that has failed the Nation and let down the people , the public, and “us the 99%” by getting themselves hijacked by the mega rich 1% who have got all laws of the land made in their favor at the cost of the people so much so that any move by the public to rectify the system becomes an act against the law and illegal !

    and whatever the 1% do are all made acts within the law to such a ridiculous extent that no banker or corporation head or CEO could be seriously punished ( as none of them have broken the law they made for themselves ) , though the whole world knows that its their corporate and individual greed , socially irresponsible acts that has brought global economic breakdown upon us .On the other hand “we the people” were made to bail them out and made the victims of the financial losses they incurred in doing business so wantonly , so irresponsibly .

    while these are by now known to all and sundry, whats not known is how to get out of this shit and regain people’s government into the hands of the public majority ? Its reached a stage where its impossible by following the biased system and the existing loaded laws . Some one must dare to break all existing practices and norms, POTA must take over unilaterally ( against the existing biased loaded law of course ) and do things under his executive powers and hand over once the system is brought under control on an even keel , leveling the play ground. All manufacturing jobs sent abroad seeking cheap labour need be brought back , jobs created within US. Jobs are what makes people happy , independent, useful and productive members of society. Jobs are a means of living for the people and not for making them millionaires and billionaires .Or for meeting their greed but for meeting their needs.

  8. All this talk about mega corporations won’t save us someone needs to act. The last president to try and stop mega corporations was John.f.Kennedy when he passed executive order 11110. This bill as meant to put the economy back into the U.S government. Thus putting the federal reserve bank out of business. This bill would have put money with gold behind it not loans of loans like our economy is today. And what happened after this. He was assassinated five months later and the next president Lyndon Johnson just got rid of it. Seems pretty convenient doesn’t it. The person who would’ve put the federal bank out of business was replaced with a nice cooperative president who got rid of it immediately. Poof all of their problems gone with one bullet. No other president has tried since. Maybe out of fear of what will happen. These mega corporations have control of the government and they know it. People like us average Joes,are nothing but ants to them. If they have to they’ll crush as many as needed. They are not afraid because they are ants what can 1,10,60,100 do to them. But if say 4,000,000 ants were to attack it would be a problem so they contain them in a cage. In this case debt. The only way to stop this is to dig out its water source, make them useless. If the government actually controlled the economy we wouldn’t be in so much debt as our money is worth less and less while our minimum wage can’t keep up. So I personally have tried and change this by showing all of you awareness and will do this again on social media.

  9. Corporations own the world. A very small groups controls everything.

  10. For people that advocate for smaller government, they should stop using Alexa voice, Google voice, Amazon Prime, Sky, subscription media, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Netflix and just replace it with a single PC with Linux (which is free)

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