The Corporation

[Winterhaze13]

I was just wondering if anyone had seen the great Canadian documentary The Corporation. This documentary discusses how the corporation and capitalism have come to gain power and influence our society by making us consumer obsessed. If you have seen the film, I like to know your opinion. If not, I suggest you watch it. It will open your mind. For now, let's consider these questions:

Is the corporation an inevitable feature of capitalism?

Since the advent of globalization the corporation has increased it's power substantially. What consequences might this have on society or the marketplace?

What can be done to make corporations more responsible and accountable?

What might the world economy and society look like if corporations no longer existed?

Do corporations do any good rather than generate wealth for the wealthiest people in society?

Some Links:

http://www.thecorporation.com/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379225/

[geoffrey]

Is the corporation an inevitable feature of capitalism?

Yes, because capitalism is about efficiency and sometimes the most efficient means of production is on the largest scale. If a small business can do it better, they will capture that share of the market in that industry, but in many (such as cars, ect.) big business simply does it better, faster and cheaper.

Since the advent of globalization the corporation has increased it's power substantially. What consequences might this have on society or the marketplace?

More swings in our markets based on international troubles and uncertainties.

What can be done to make corporations more responsible and accountable?

Have smarter consumers that understand how the system works and buy only goods from more responsible and accountable companies.

What might the world economy and society look like if corporations no longer existed?

Back to cottage industry? We wouldn't see much of the progress that we see today, and all of our standards of living would be much lower due to less consumer goods.

Do corporations do any good rather than generate wealth for the wealthiest people in society?

Sure, generate jobs for the working classes, provide massive amounts to charity, and help us all retire by creating secure investment choices.

[PatM]

The corporation is an excellent documentary, but it uses to broad of a brush.

The biggest problem with corporations is not really the existance of corporations - it is their collusion with government. Through donations and outright bribery (the fruits of which are given AFTER the politician leaves politics - ala Mulroney's position with Power Corp after gutting banking regulations in favour of Power Corp).

What we really need is a reform of campaign finance. Its been proven time and time again that "He who spends the most money, wins". Corporations have the most money so their candidates win 90% of the time.

If people want corporations to act as responsible citizens then we need to eliminate donations to political parties and go with public funding instead.

No, I don't mean the Chretien form either - its not a fair system. Each candidate in a riding should get identical funding along with mandated amounts of air time/newspaper coverage locally. Prevent anyone from drowning out the message of other candidates because they have lots more money.

Campaigns should be concentrated on local coverage of local candidates. National coverage should be mandated but only allowed about 1/4 of the coverage that local candidates get.

Get politics back to being about YOUR representatives, not about what the party brass tells your representative to do.

Each elected representative's voting record should be made available locally in their riding - published in local papers and posted on the member's website. Let the people in the riding see what their representative is really doing.

Once politicians are no longer beholding to their big donors they will have to start paying attention to their constituents instead.

Some (not all, not even most) corporations have been allowed to be monsterous only because they have the money to make politicians reliant on them.

P.S. For you conservatives - this also prevents labour from having politicians under their financial thumb as well.

[cybercoma]

I really hate how people hold this documentary up as an "anti-capitalism" flag. The documentary simply explores the question of whether or not corporations should have social, humantarian and environmental responsibility as well as financial.

It's not a comment against capitalism.

[PatM]

I never got to see the end of The Corporation (getting DVD some day though). Did they give any suggestions of how any of the above could be incorporated (no pun intended) into the corporate concept?

[bigdude]

The biggest problem with corporations is not really the existance of corporations

I disagree.

The only reason for corporations to exist is to remove liability from people who do bad things, and for tax evasion. Corporations have been the biggest abuse of citizens ever, more so than any war or famine has ever done.

[PatM]

The biggest problem with corporations is not really the existance of corporations

I disagree.

The only reason for corporations to exist is to remove liability from people who do bad things, and for tax evasion. Corporations have been the biggest abuse of citizens ever, more so than any war or famine has ever done.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ok, we actually agree. I wholeheartedly disagree with the way the law has held corporate management (Directors especially) outside the law.

If the corporation commits a crime - the corporate bosses should pay.

p.s. don't forget about the "limited" status

[August1991]

The corporation is an excellent documentary, but it uses to broad of a brush.

The movie "The Corporation" is MTV, with a 1950s atomic-threat, hide-under-desk style. Too broad? I was depressed when I saw the rented DVD. Coase said much more about corporations years ago. There has been smart things said since then. On this, the documentary was silent.

My conclusion?

The North American Left is clueless. It lives in an anti-globalization, anti-corporation, State-corporatist, commanding-heights world that died elsewhere about 15 or 20 years ago.

The North American Left's only redeeming feature now is its social liberalism: it wants to get the State out of personal choice. It defends gay rights and ipso facto, the Left is cool. IMV, the North American Left has been too concerned about image, PR or whatever the recent buzzword is.

IOW, I suspect that many high school students saw this movie because their teachers said it was really important and smart. (Teachers born in the 1950s, now with beards and tie-dye skirts).

Well, the movie was made with our tax money - check out "The Corporation" production blurb:

Produced by Big Picture Media Corporation in association with TV ONTARIO, Vision TV, Knowledge Network, Saskatchewan Communications Network and ACCESS – The Education Station. Produced with the participation of the Canadian Television Fund, Telefilm Canada: Equity Investment Program, CTF: Licence Fee Program, British Columbia Film, the Canadian Independent Film & Video Fund, Rogers Documentary Fund, Rogers Telefund and the Province of British Columbia Film Incentive BC. Produced with the assistance of The Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit. Produced in part through donations by the Yvonne Tasker-Rothenberg and Martin Rothenberg Fund, Simon Fraser Institute for the Humanities, Boag Foundation, and Inter Pares. Special thank you to Rick Prelinger.

All of these State financing organizations refer to themselves as "Corporations" but they are anything but. Example? Telefilm Canada describes itself in the following way:

The Corporation provides financial assistance and strategic leverage to the industry in producing high-quality works - e.g. feature films, drama series, documentaries, children's shows, variety/performing arts programs, and new media products - that reflect Canadian society, including its linguistic duality and cultural diversity. Telefilm Canada's current annual budget is approximately $244 million.

ALL of that 244 million strategic corporate leverage comes from you and me without our individual choice in the matter. Telefilm Canada, and the movie "The Corporation", got my money without my choice.

When I deal with real corporations such as Wal-Mart, Toyota, even Bell Media, I can refuse to give them my money. For example, I chose to give $1.50 to Videotron to rent the DVD of "The Corporation".

Corporations take money from people voluntarily. Governments take money from people by taxation.

Needless to say, the movie "The Corporation" ignored this fundamental point. It sadly ignored many other points about corporations too. Well, it was a MTV documentary.

----

This is old news but given what is happening in Canadian federal politics now, a reality check is well deserved.

You can lie to some of the people all of the time; and all of the people some of the time. But you cannot lie to all of the people all of the time.

Abraham Lincoln said that phrase at a time when the United States had sought one too many "patches" or "fixes" for its political problems.

In Canada, I think too that we cannot continue forever to lie to ourselves. The patch or fix won't work anymore.

----

PatM, welcome back, (apparently under a new name).

bigdude, as best I could, I defended your right to post here before.

[Technocrat]

i suggest reading the book... imho once again book>documentary

ohh yeah its cheap too like 12 bucks or so

[PatM]

August - you confuse me for someone else.

Saying the anti-globalization movement is dead is just wrong. The media has decided to stop covering anything that doesn't include protesters getting shot with rubber bullets is all.

Its the North American right that is going the way of the dodo. With Bush and his cabbal of neo-cons killing tens of thousands of people around the world, people are getting wise to the corporatist agenda being pushed by the likes of Bush and Martin.

Right winger's, being glued to Faux News, CNN, and Global TV are, of couse, unaware of the developments in the OAS. Oblivious to the doings in the UK and the rest of Europe, and ignorant about the groundswell of anger being caused by the exploitation of poor nations by the US and Canada. Yes, contrary to popular belief - Canada is starting to get lumped in with the cries of US corporate and military imperialism.

The "left", meaning anyone with a brain and a heart, regardless of political leanings, has turned away from the main stream media. We've turned to the internet and the hoarde of non-neo-con news and discussion sites. We get newspaper, TV, and radio reports from around the world that never see the light of day in MSM outlets.

We see things like the Blair Memo which still hasn't made it to primetime in North America despite being headline news around the rest of the world for weeks.

We get to watch British MP George Galloway school US Senate Neocons while the right wingers are fed the latest Survivor results.

We learn that the OAS is standing up to the Neo-con destruction of their countries. Electing a leader that the US didn't tell them to elect, giving Rice the cold shoulder and allying with several middle eastern countries for mutual support. Issuing the rather pointed resolution that all member states have the right to resist occupation by a foreign power.

The anti-globalization crowd, unlike its characterization in the MSM, isn't against global trade. It IS against global exploitation. Free trade CAN be quite beneficial but the current corporate imperialism masquerading as Free Trade is not. "Anti-globalization" movements are working on changing the rules, not eliminating the trade.

The political landscape in South and Central America is changing. After the failed US backed coup against the democratically elected President of Venezuela and the failed recall attempt carried out with international observers and Jimmy Carter looking on (Chavez won handily yet again).

Ecuador's population has prompted its US backed president to flee and his replacement, Vice President Alfredo Palacio isn't caving in to Washington. This rather shocking event garnered the completely irrational call, by Condi Rice, to oust the "unconstitutional" leader . As if a Vice President taking over after a president abdicates is unconstitutional?

South America, Central America, and some countries in the middle east are all rallying around Venezuela and Brazil - to stand up against the corporate global empire represented by the USA.

But, sit back and absorb that propaganda and miss out on all the real news in the world- its your right as a Canadian to play ostrich if you like.

[willy]

The "left", meaning anyone with a brain and a heart, regardless of political leanings, has turned away from the main stream media. We've turned to the internet and the hoarde of non-neo-con news and discussion sites. We get newspaper, TV, and radio reports from around the world that never see the light of day in MSM outlets.

Have you ever heard of the term "bounded rationality". It was first used to describe how we as individuals can not think outside of our own experiences. Thus to make better decisions we need to seek a broad range of views at the same time recognize our limitations.

With the advent of specialty channels, market segmentation and web communities a new phenomenon can occur. One can choose to fill their mind with a very narrow view of the world thus distorting the common reality. The community communicates mostly internally, reinforces common beliefs and building a common sense of identity that is strong. To the community it is very clear that other just don't understand. They must not be as enlightened. In the seventies, groups like the Moonies developed under a common sequence.

As for the "Corporation" I saw a screening with the director who referred to his own work as art. The intent of the film was not to be balance but to stir thoughts and discussion. Which it did but it was far from a metaphysical reality.

[PatM]

Have you ever heard of the term "bounded rationality". It was first used to describe how we as individuals can not think outside of our own experiences. Thus to make better decisions we need to seek a broad range of views at the same time recognize our limitations.

With the advent of specialty channels, market segmentation and web communities a new phenomenon can occur. One can choose to fill their mind with a very narrow view of the world thus distorting the common reality. The community communicates mostly internally, reinforces common beliefs and building a common sense of identity that is strong. To the community it is very clear that other just don't understand. They must not be as enlightened. In the seventies, groups like the Moonies developed under a common sequence.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes actually, I have - though not by that name specifically. It was referred to as people's "scripts". People are used to doing, seeing, and thinking certain things. If something happens that is outside this "script", many people simply don't know how to deal with it. Usually it ends up in denial or some form of rationalizing that it has nothing to do with themselves. You know how every once in a while you hear about someone walking right past a person that is injured - not stopping to help? Its not that the person is heartless or stupid - its just that the event is too far outide their script and their concious mind simply doesn't know how to deal with it.

I used to be in the Navy (Canadian of course). One thing that definately did is expand the bounds of my rationality! One of the biggest threats to my "scripts" was China. We went there in 1983 (or 84 - was soo long ago). This was just before China started opening up and we were the first western warships allowed in since... the revolution I guess.

The chinese government did not trust us one bit. Our ships had to anchor in the middle of the Huangpu river and the only way ashore was on Chinese naval craft. We had to wear uniforms at all times or risk being arrested as spies. We were only allowed to travel in a very small area of downtown Shanghai - along the bund and a few blocks into the city. We weren't allowed to use Chinese money - only a script that could only be used in the Friendship stores, Friendship hotel, Peace Hotel, and the International seaman's club.

Every street bounding our "allowed" area had 4-8 chinese military personnel. When we toured the industrial museum the entire area was ringed by about 6 platoons of soldiers. When we saw the acrobats (Damned good too!) all the highest and lowest rows were full of chinese military.

A couple of times as we were walking around, we tried talking to some people. Asking about taxi's (none existed as far as I could tell), directions to the seaman's club, that sort of thing. The moment we stopped someone, we'd be surrounded by 20-30 civilians all trying to hear what we were saying. A couple of times men walked up to us and started asking questions like "You are from Canada, where is your ship going next?" - people scattered. A hole would open up in a 10ft radius around us - nobody looking in our direction at all. Didn't take too long to figure out these were the secret police, attempting to find "talkers".

Having lived most of my life in Canada and traveling only in Canada and the states, nothing prepared me for this exposure to a totalitarian state. Sure, I "knew" it was communist and all that, but it wasn't actually real to me until I was there - thousands of miles from home, staring at someone I had no doubt was the chinese version of a KGB agent.

Things like that change a person's entire world outlook. Added to things like getting a bit too close to guerillas fighting federal troops in the Philippines, seeing "Camp 07" outside Mazatlan, which is a female prison masquerading as a resort village and housing prisoners made to work as prostitutes, the A-Bomb dome in Hiroshima, and the dozens of WWII cemetaries I saw in southeast asia have expanded my script a lot...