[lbo-talk] re: biz ethics and slavery

Michael Catolico mcatolico at mindspring.com
Fri Aug 13 12:51:12 PDT 2004


has anyone here read Joel Bakan's "The Corporation" or seen the documentary? lots of interesting things there re: this thread.

basically the relevant point is that corporations by law cannot be ethical or socially responsible - unless those activities contribute to profit. (milton friedman is quoted as saying that socially responsible activities are absurd unless they can be construed as beneficial to the shareholders.) in other words, corporate management has a fiduciary responsibility to act in the interests of shareholders and thus spending corporate resources on things that don't have the potential for either enhancing revenues or reducing costs - whether those resources go to providing workers on-site daycare or buying resort homes for the CEO - are in fact illegal. voluntary corporate ethical behavior is akin to advertising - it allows a corporation to charge more or enhances brand.

regarding the morality of corporations, Bakan takes the corporation's legal claim of "personhood " and examines what kind of person the corporation is. conclusion: a psychopath.

michael moore is interviewed in the movie and he offers some of his most astute and progressive insights. for instance, he talks about the seeming contradiction that some of the most entrenched capitalist interests fund his projects while those projects go on to explicitly or implicitly attack the institutions they are funded by. his basic analysis is that, purely and simply, capitalism is amoral. as long as capitalism can make a buck off of something, it will pursue it. he quotes (without saying marx's name) the line that "a capitalist will sell you the rope to hang him with." michael catolico



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list