Corporation

One last blog to post, about the book The Corporation.

Joel Bakan states how the corporations began to gain its power in the mid-1500s and even started to govern society. My general image of corporations are just evil beings, as Rab mentioned in the class. When I heard the story about car corporations comparing the cost of compensation and recall, I was astonished. For the large corporations, the profit is everything. People's lives can be even converted to money. In Ch3, Bakan mentions how the corporation has a psychopathic character and a negative effect on the environment due to their externalities. But do they make effort to deal with the issue by using money? No. He also explains the difference between companies and corporations. Unlike companies, corporations must act in the interest of shareholders or otherwise, the executives can get sued. So, the real culprits are shareholders. Another interesting point is how he warns this book is not an academic study.

Due to my lack of knowledge I could only understand the general idea, but there is a need to prevent the corporations from dominating the society, contaminating the environment and "pathologically pursuing profits and power."