Has the Comcast Corporation Just Given Philadelphia the Finger, to the Tune of $1.6 Billion?

By Steve Halpern

Recently the Comcast Corporation completed their skyscraper in Philadelphia that had a reported cost of $1.6 billion. This is the second Comcast skyscraper and both these buildings dominate the Philadelphia skyline. Towards one side of the roof of this new building is a 210-foot mast that makes this structure one of the ten tallest buildings in this country.

Inga Saffron is the architecture critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer and wrote an in depth review of this new building. Saffron had this to say about the 210-foot mast that dominates the skyline of Philadelphia:

“People will debate whether its telescoping, art deco-inspired mast resembles a vulgar hand gesture or more like a cigarette being extracted from its box.”

So, why would anyone think that this new $1.6 billion Comcast building might represent a “vulgar hand gesture”? This might have something to do with the fact that corporations have one overriding priority when they make investments. They want those investments to turn a profit. While Comcast might have invested billions of dollars in their two Philadelphia skyscrapers, they expect to recoup every penny of that money in profits.

Today, Philadelphia is the poorest of the largest cities in this country. Hundreds of thousands of people in the Delaware Valley do not have enough food to eat. Tens of thousands are homeless. Many suffer from injuries or illnesses because we don’t have the resources for proper medical care. So, we might appreciate why some people think of the new Comcast skyscraper as an extremely expensive, “vulgar hand gesture” pointed to the working people of this city.

However, this new building provokes and even deeper question. Why are skyscrapers a central part of cities throughout the world? Before we answer this question we might consider another question.

What are the goods and services working people need and want? I can think of about eight different things that include: food, clothing, housing, transportation, communication, health care, education, and exposure to cultural activities like music, art, dance, film, theater, and literature.

Now, we can think of the enterprises housed in most skyscrapers. These include: banks, insurance companies, advertising agencies, corporate headquarters, and corporate law firms. Understanding all of this, we can conclude that most of the workers in these skyscrapers sit at desks and contribute little if anything to the goods and services workers need and want. Yet, the way society is organized, we need to effectively pay for these buildings with the purchases we make every day. This is one of the reasons why prices are so high.

We might also consider that some of the offices in the new Comcast tower are for engineers who are necessary for the cable operations Comcast manages. However, the work of those engineers is geared towards making Comcast more profitable, and not to make those services more affordable for working people.

This new Comcast building has 60 stories. An entire floor of the building is the personal residence of Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. If we divide the $1.6 billion by the sixty floors, we get an answer of about $27 million. So, while Brian Roberts reaps in enormous profits from the working people of this area, he has rewarded himself with perhaps the most expensive personal residence in the city.

But let us not forget, Philadelphia has a tax abatement plan that means new construction will not be taxed for ten years. So, while Roberts lives in opulence, he can rest assured that he will pay no taxes for this luxury. He also has an extravagant home in Martha’s Vineyard. He lives in these residences while funding for public education in Philadelphia has been cut to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

We might also consider that while Brian Roberts lives in opulence, the United States has the largest prison population in the world. Over 90% of those in prison haven’t been convicted of anything, and are in jail because of plea bargains. Of those people who are in jail, about half are there on drug possession charges that might only effect the user.

Understanding these facts, we might think about a statement by the socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs. Debs served time in prison twice; once for leading a strike of rail workers who routinely lived with hunger. The other prison sentence was because Debs gave a speech against the U.S. participation in the First World War. This is what he had to say about the judicial system:

“The judicial nets in this country are adjusted to catch the minnows and let the wales slip through.”

The $1.6 billion new Comcast building is clear evidence that the resources exist to greatly improve the standard of living in this country and around the world. Working people have the potential to build a political movement that puts in place a government that makes human needs more important than profits. I believe that that is a much better perspective than being the recipient of a “vulgar hand gesture.”