Our problems, the logic goes, originate in these large business entities and their soulless pursuit of wealth. Since our society is a marketplace, and the marketplace rewards large wealth centers, corporations are not only inevitable but essential. This makes "corporations are evil" an unactionable answer, and forces those who adopt it as a viewpoint to barricade themselves behind downloading Open Source(tm) browsers, buying Fair Trade(tm) coffee, and supporting independent film. None of these have a substantive effect on corporations. Read More: Anti-Corporatism by Brett Stevens I've never believed evil is so simple as to inhabit only corporations. I think most people are really dumb in this regard. Still, corporations do cause great ill... but as the article said, like soylent green, corporations are made up of people.
People can fuck up anything, any time! People could fuck up Utopia in only a few minutes, heaven will take just slightly longer. People can fuck up even the best wet dreams, for god's sake. One can try to lay the blame on "corporations" if they want, but it all comes down to human greed and selfishness, among other nasty characteristics. It's the human factor, not the corporations or businesses or the political system or the economic system ....humans fuck it all up. Baron Max
Of course "corporations are evil" is overly simplistic. While open source, fair trade coffee, and independent film are all good ideas, so are corporations. The problem lies with not upholding the basic principle of corporate charters; that they can and should be revoked if the corporation isn't acting in the public interest. Corporate entities should not be considered legal persons, with the same rights of free speech and political contributions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corporation Criticism of corporations summarized by talking about the film..
Corporate entities are a limitation in human development. While many people are responsible for a business being run, in truth corporate policy's are dictated by what those in power tell employees. So even if the people working there wanted to change something they'd have no real ability to, instead they'd merely follow the rules to keep from being let go. This leads to the truth of the matter. As long as corporations exist the world won't be as free as it CAN BE, but if they don't exist then industrialization will likely faulter and we'll be back in a day an age where people dictate their surroundings. No more pavement, no more steel sky-scrapers, only clear, simple, refined individualism.
And no more sewer systems, no more highway systems, no more city/county landfills, no more electricity, no more telephone systems, no more computer stores, no more trucking companies, no more large-scale farming and ranching, ........... Baron Max
Where does anything like that exist? Huh? A corporation has a "charter" for acting in the public interest? ...LOL! I might also ask, what's "public interest"? And how is it defined and/or limited? In other words, if it's in the public interest for the public in America, is it still necessarily in the public interest in, say, Europe? They aren't considered "legal persons", they're corporate entities .....and interestingly, the laws in the US are even stricter for them than for normal persons. So I'm not sure what ye're getting at here ...can you expain? Baron Max
Well, socialism don't seem to be doin' so well, is it? Where is socialism being something that you're so proud of? Baron Max
Max, ignorant as ever. Why don't you READ the provided link before you open your mouth? "...explains the historical function of a corporation. In the past, individual states in the United States issued charters which stipulated what, where, and for how long a corporation could last in order to protect the public good. Richard Grossman states that in early America, the common viewpoint was that the corporation is a subordinate entity which is considered a gift from the people to help the general public. " I know you like philosophical questions, so I will pass on these.... Of course they are legal person, and you would know that if you had read the provided link. You know Max, ignorance is a sin when it comes with laziness... :bugeye:
We have a telecoms corporation with monopoly status TOTALLY exploiting South Africa. Its really really sad. They were a parastatal during Apartheid, but then after Apartheid it got semi-privatized. An American company called Thintana then bought most of the shares and taught it the American corporate way of doing business. Since then we have the highest call rates in the world Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Telkoms legal department is bigger than its technical department... and there's basically nothing we can do about it. PS, I watched "The Corporation", its an excellent documentary.
People can be put in jail, can feel guilty, often need to at least pretend they have good intentions EVEN WHEN THEY ARE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. People who break the law, kill people, are professionally irresponsible often get their liscences revoked or put in jail or lose the right to perform certain activities. Imagine a dentist klling clients by using a poison (knowing this poison was a risk for his patients). It gets found out and he keeps his liscence. Corporations are relatively unpunishable. They are not moral entities and yet they have the same protections we have around free speech and so on. They have enormous power and no matter what they do they can continue to commit the same crimes, kill people, destroy environments and so on. Any CEO who starts to feel guilty, like humans can, gets replaced. WE have given tremendous power to processes that function like machines. It's like letting a computer driven power mower lose in a yard filled with kids from a daycare and saying that humans built the mower. yeah....so? The world and us, we're those kids.
