Corporations and the Common Good

[LC EFA]

marmar  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-22-08 04:29 PM
Original message
Corporations and the Common Good.....Inherently imcompatible?

-[snipped a bunch of quotes from such luminary figures as chomsky , Epstein, Moore and the like. ]-

All of the above quotes are from the film "The Corporation", BTW.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3838877

Let the Insanity begin !

Bob Dobbs  (695 posts) Fri Aug-22-08 04:30 PM
Response to Original message
1. Enemy of The People.
   
corporofascism is the root of all political evil.

umberjack_jeff  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-22-08 04:45 PM
Response to Original message
4. I don't think that's necessarily true.
   
A corporation is given its charter by society, in the expectation that insulating investors from the liabilities that the corporation assumes is in the public interest.

Corporations got their start when ships of discovery and trade began coming to the americas. One investor might get filthy rich by financing a voyage - in the unlikely event that it succeeded. To mitigate this risk, investors pooled their resources to finance these voyages.

That trade had a benefit to the people who derived their livelihoods it.

The problem is that society is shy about pulling the plug on corporations who no longer surve the public interest.

"Serve the public interest" ?? WTF ?

greyhound1966  (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-22-08 04:47 PM
Response to Original message
5. The Truth.
   
By their very nature, they stifle innovation, eliminate craftsmanship and cause/create desperation and scarcity.

:kick: & R

If there is a prize for most idiotic comment of the year, this one would have to be a leading contender.

warren pease  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-22-08 09:06 PM
Response to Original message
12. Not only incompatible, but it's nearly impossible under current law for...
   
... public, for-profit US corporations to comply with their federally mandated fiduciary obligations and serve the community at the same time.

Consider the predatory for-profit scam called the US medical system. Under US law and SEC regulations, a publicly owned, for-profit corporation's only obligation is maximizing shareholder equity.

So anything that bumps the stock price is good, and anything that lowers it is bad. Paying claims is bad because it sucks money from the bottom line. Denying claims is great because it saves money that contributes to corporate profitability, which ultimately helps raise the price of the stock, keeping these greedy prick investors from suing the execs and the board for underperforming.

In short, this twisted priority makes it virtually impossible for a US for-profit, publicly held medical insurer to serve both its subscribers and shareholders at the same time.

As usual in this fraudulent society that has turned the stunning concept of a government that promotes life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness into a cruel joke, whenever the public interest collides with maximizing corporate profitability, somebody has to get screwed. Here in the world champion promoter of greedy zero-sum capitalist supremacy, the screwees will always be the peasants -- by law, incredibly enough.

So no, I'm pretty sure that corporations and humans can't peacefully co-exist because their values and priorities are in direct opposition and therefore irreconcilable.


wp

What is it with these people and thinking that the operations of a private company have anything at all to do with serving the community ?

      om/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3838877

[Carl]

What is it with these people and thinking that the operations of a private company have anything at all to do with serving the community ?

DUmmies believe all happiness (riches and other wants) are stored in rooms for them from the moment of birth.
Each has their own room.

DUmmies believe that business is a bogeyman that stands in the way,preventing them from opening the door to their happiness room.

DUmmies are just greedy idiots.

[BlueStateSaint]

DUmmies believe that business is a bogeyman that stands in the way, preventing them from opening the door to their happiness room.

DUmmies are just greedy idiots.

I'm absolutely sick of the phrase, "Go to your happy place," as if it's a marked point on Earth for everyone.  (It is, for me--wherever my daughter happens to be at the time.  Pretty soon, it'll also include deer camp for a couple of months.)

As for the not-bolded above, well, neighbor, some truths are self-evident!