Political Discussions
Corporations... Good or Bad?
Posted by Agit8r • 2/26/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: corpintern, corporatism, corporativism, corporatocracy, the corporativismo
I'm wondering which arguement you bloggers out their agree with more, with regard to the relative merit of joint-stock corporations?
The Con
"To establish a joint stock company... for any undertaking merely because such a company might be capable of managing it successfully; or to exempt a particular set of dealers from some of the general laws which take place with regard to all their neighbours, merely because they might be capable of thriving if they had such an exemption, would certainly not be reasonable. To render such an establishment perfectly reasonable,"
--Adam Smith, from The Wealth of Nations
or the Pro
"...joint-stock companies as much as cooperative factories should be viewed as transition forms from the capitalist mode of production to the associated one, simply that in the one case the opposition is abolished in a negative way, and in the other in a positive way."
--Karl Marx, from Capital
User Comments
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The problem with U.S. corporations goes back to the 1800s, when the Supreme Court ruled that they have the same rights as people. That didn't, and still doesn't, make any sense! The government needs to be able to exercise more control, not less, over what corporations are permitted to do. -
A corporation is neither a pro or a con. It is just a tool. Used properly, it can be helpful. -
Full legal personhood is only part of the problem. The other part is a joint stock corporation becomes a collectively owned entity in which the interests of the management becomes detached from the interests of the ownership. Smith (The father of Laissez-Faire capitalism) goes on to say that joint stock ownership is reasonable for purposes that are "reducable to strict rule and method" like banking (snicker) and canal operation.
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