Feel No Remorse -- The Corporate Creed

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Feel No Remorse -- The Corporate Creed

_http://journeytoforever.org/fyi_previous5.html#creed_

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M. W. Guzy is a former police detective and school teacher who now writes a

weekly column for the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

 

Jan 23 2002

_http://www.tompaine.com/_ (http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=5044)

 

The Washington Post recently reported that the Monsanto chemical company

knowingly polluted the towns of Anniston, Ala., and Sauget, Ill., for years with

the deadly by-products of PCB manufacture. While doing so, the firm -- now

Solutia, Inc. " intentionally concealed the public health hazards and

environmental devastation associated with these pollutants. " The corporation did

this

to protect its profits.

 

Shortly after this report was published, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an

editorial condemning the socially irresponsible greed at the heart of the

matter. It said, in part, that the episode " provides a chilling glimpse of the

dark side of corporate culture. " Noting that " it is one thing to make a human

mistake out of ignorance, " it opined that " once a company knows " it is

harming the public, " then conceals this knowledge or refuses to act on it, it

has

broached even the minimum standards of ethics. "

 

I sympathize with the sentiments expressed, but articles like this remind me

of Sgt. Reese in " The Terminator. " He was the rebel soldier who was sent to

combat the automated killer for whom that film was named. In one memorable

scene, Reese tries desperately to convince disbelieving civilians that the

Terminator may look like a man but, in fact, is not human.

 

 

" You don't understand, " he pleads. " It can't be bargained with. It can't be

reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. " He thus

unwittingly describes the modern corporation.

 

Corporations employ people, but this does not make them human. Like the

Terminator, they are artificial entities created with a single purpose in mind

--

the former to kill, the latter to generate profit. All other activities they

engage in are incidental to their respective missions.

 

Of course, corporations contribute to the general well being. Not only do

they produce needed goods and services, but they promote prosperity by

providing well-paid jobs, health insurance, and retirement plans for their

employees.

To enhance their public stature while reducing their tax liabilities, they

also contribute to worthy civic causes.

 

All of these activities, however, are tangential to their central enterprise

of garnering the largest possible profit. In fact, they have a fiduciary

obligation to their shareholders to do just that. Understanding this defining

feature of the corporate life reveals terms like " business ethics " and

" corporate conscience " to be oxymorons. These misnomers come into use when we

commit

the intellectual sin of anthropomorphism -- attributing human characteristics

to non-human entities. The firm is neither good nor bad, and it feels no

pity or remorse.

 

During the '70s, the Ford Motor Company produced a subcompact auto called

the Pinto. The corporation subsequently learned that the vehicle had an

unfortunate tendency to explode when involved in rear-end collisions. The

decision

was made to continue building the Pinto because it was cheaper to settle with

survivors than it would be to stop production and re-tool the line. This is

the kind of clear-eyed business vision that polluted the fields and streams of

Anniston and Sauget.

 

If these decisions seem inhuman, it's because they are. Asking a corporation

to limit its profit in the interest of ethics is akin to asking a hungry

tiger to consider the long-term health implications of eating too much red

meat.

You can't expect the beast to betray its nature.

 

The fun-loving firm that brought you the Pinto has just announced 35,000 job

cuts. It didn't take this action because it's evil, but rather because its

capacity for production currently exceeds the demand for its product. Ford

will gladly accept any tax rebate Congress sends it -- acquiring wealth is its

reason for existence. But it won't hire one new worker until demand again

exceeds capacity. CEOs who ignore the laws of economics suffer the same fate as

airline pilots who violate the laws of physics.

 

Teddy Roosevelt didn't gain a reputation as a " trust-buster " because he was

an admirer of Karl Marx. He despised socialism, which he saw as a threat to

liberty. He likewise distrusted unbridled capitalism because he recognized

that markets are efficient, but also ruthless.

 

The only way to humanize corporate behavior is to make breaking the law less

profitable than obeying it. When crime truly doesn't pay, corporations

become model citizens.

 

The bottom line is that somebody is going to set policy. Who would you

prefer: Teddy -- or the Terminator?

 

 

__

Corporations Behaving Badly:

The Ten Worst Corporations of 2001

By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

.... We propose that Congress legislate a Corporate Character Commission

(CCC). This would be a 10-person panel, with members chosen from the human

person

community. Ideal candidates would be ethicists, philosophers, corporate

criminologists and the like.

 

The CCC would check on the criminal records, recidivism rates, acts of

immorality and other wrongdoing of the largest corporations.

 

If the CCC were up and running now, we would propose that it take a close

look at the Ten Worst Corporations of 2001. Clearly they do not care. They are

not moral entities. They should be stripped of their constitutional

protections. Their shareholders should be made fully liable.

 

Multinational Monitor has named Abbott Laboratories, Argenbright, Bayer,

Coke, Enron, Exxon Mobil, Philip Morris, Sara Lee, Southern Co. and Wal-Mart as

the 10 worst corporations of 2001.

 

Full report:

_http://63.111.165.25/01december/dec01corp1.html_

(http://63.111.165.25/01december/dec01corp1.html)