Corporations suck

The write-on competition materials for the various law journals are due in two days. Given the fact that my grades this semester didn't live up to my standards, I feel like I have to write on to make up for them. The problem with this, however, is that I'm still feeling burnt out on school and can't seem to make myself concentrate, even though I find the material pretty interesting. So it seems strange to me that I have just spent the last hour and a half researching the various greed-driven deeds of Entergy, otherwise known as the "real" evil empire. As happens every month, I get my bill online and experience a sort of hatred-fueled sticker shock when I see the astronomical amount that I'm expected to pay. This month, it was a full $150 more than my last bill, which was typically high for New Orleans in the summer. So, while researching, I find that they have just requested a 25% rate hike for their customers to help pay for storm damage, to be voted on by November 1 by the City Council, the supposed regulatory body keeping them in check. Now, I used to want to be a corporate lawyer, but have recently reconsidered, having jumped on the "corporations are evil" bandwagon. Seems that Entergy has $29 billion in assets at its disposal, $250 million in storm insurance, and earned $909 million last year alone. Seems to me that this would be plenty to pay for the estimated $718 million needed to repair the storm damage and get the company back on track. But no...instead of sucking it up, they are whining about the federal government's lack of corporate welfare options and passing the responsiblity for rebuilding onto their customers. Is it just me, or does this seem wrong? While you ponder this, I leave you with this last figure: despite the damage from Katrina, and the fact that they were in bankruptcy protection at the time (and still are), Entergy still managed to pay out a $1.1 million bonus to their CEO in 2005. Huh.