Geke(Shadow)Venn: NESTLÉ cont'd

Another installment in the Nestlé bottled water saga has been ongoing in Michigan for many years. The company, which is the largest owner of water resources in that state, has been sued repeatedly as a result of its water extraction there. It's estimated that Nestlé removes up to 200 gallons a minute from Michigan water sources. And when Flint began experiencing trouble with its water supply, Flint resident Michael Moore implied that Nestlé was trying to benefit from the town's increased demand for bottled water. There have even been implications that Nestlé caused the situation in Flint to increase bottled water demand.

In the midst of these tensions and accusations, it came to light that the chief of staff for Michigan's governor, Rick Snyder, was actually married to Nestlé's Michigan spokesperson, Deb Muchmore. This isn't a direct connection that would show up in OpenSecrets because Deb Muchmore isn't employed by the state government of Michigan, herself. But she's married to someone who is, which makes Nestlé and the state of Michigan suspicious bedfellows. As such, I've added Deb Muchmore to the shorter, in-progress (Shadow)Venn for Nestlé.

However, it should be noted that critics of Governor Snyder blame him for trying to “privatize” water in the state of Michigan... as if anything Nestlé does is private or within the purview of a competitive free market. Nestlé's advantages are handed over from the public sector: their privileges come directly from the government. By definition, the private sector can't confer privilege: a private firm operating in a free market (meaning free from government intervention) is decentralized. Only centralized power can confer privilege and the ability to "legally" skirt competition.

A private company selling bottled water could never achieve the scope and scale that Nestlé has been able to achieve without help from the government both through regulatory bypass and through written legislation – and that's what these venn diagrams are all about. Nestlé drowns out private competitors who simply can't compete with the megacorporation's government-provided advantages. It's these advantages and privileges GekeVenns try to visually represent. Personally, I would much prefer the privatization of water: privatization would allow for true competition among water bottlers and would do away with the free rides megacorporations like Nestlé enjoy.