go watch The Corporation i swear it's such a fantastic show. i am saving up money to get the book at borders now. i drew some thoughts and perspectives after watching like 1 episode of it. its a 3-episode documentary(3hrs altogether)

just felt like sharing some views of what i wrote down on my notepad while i was so engrossed with the documentary. But of course think of the history/social studies/humanities rule that go PCTTCP and draw your own conclusion about whether Corporations are good/or bad for us. Don't be upset because i sound really angsty and biased but at least my views are factual.

I'm really sick of inequality and the harsh thought that my fellow brothers and sisters in third world countries around other parts of this planet are being mistreated, and exploited. How i wish the profit motivation had some limitbreak.

But anyway, enjoy.



-film rolling-

The Corporation - the dominating institution of our era

what is the corporation? it evolved from capitalism that started in the mid-late 18th century in America whereby a bunch of people came together to form a group/company that consisted of an hierachy under a united perspective and direction to achieve some goal(wealth, i guess) and they had legal rights which they had to obey, follow and gave them the right to do some things. Of course back then, those rights were very restricted, the government controlled what these corporations were doing and what rights they had to persecute a policy and such.

But today, it gives me no surprise to proclaim brave and freely that the fact mentioned in the previous paragraph has met history. Today, corporations are dominating our world. Look at Nike, McDonalds, Burger King, Microsoft, Enron, Shell, and so many others. do you remember the time when your church and your teachers tried to impart some moral values and they always like to say something that goes, "In today's society, everything is driven by materialism" - Doesn't it strike you and make more sense to again remember that materialism is thanks to - The Corporations? What makes them so powerful? none other than materialism, you & me - we buy their products and we make them powerful. Governments and systems of countries around the world try their very best to attract these corporations through economic incentives like tax-cuts and free-tax holidays, efficiency, etc - so that these corporations can in turn provide jobs and help lower unemployment rates in their economies. This is the game of capitalism, the science of how Corporations arise, and we play the largest part of it today, in the 21st Century - whereby materials mean so much to us.

lets look at Nike.. to be specific, their exploits of labour in Cambodia:

work conditions/wage charts
they aren't paid by an hour, they're paid by 10,000s of a second
these workers have approximately 6.6 minutes to make a shirt - 70 cents an hour
and that 6.6 minutes = 8 cents, you get paid 8 cents for making a shirt that probably costs around $20-30.
further mathematics and estimation and thats about 3/10th of 1% of the retail price -it's the reality of how these poor Cambodian labourers work at, it's the science of exploitation. (please support www.Maketradefair.com)

workers earn barely enough to buy 3 meals a day, or feed their economy
cause of all the free-trade that makes corporation and competition global so terrible that all these 3rd world countries have to offer even more incentives, long free-tax holidays, etc.. Corporations became so powerful with their legal rights and their power globally, that they are almost producing any product without a cost cause of exploitation of labour. But hey, i believe some or many corporations are good. But a fact that lies behind every corporation is that, every single one of them are driven souly by something called profit motivation, whereby that profit is never enough to them.

Say ask McDonalds - is making half a billion enough? no i'm gonna make that 1 billion cause i know i can do it, and when that target is reached the question prompts up again, is a billion enough? i'm gonna make 2. that profit motivation is quite a neverending story - of course by hook or by crook, whether it affects our world, our people, our agriculture, our ecosystems.. i don't know if that matters to them.

Who is responsible for the mega-cancer epidemic? all the global warming, environment-destroying epidemics and outcomes that are growing? who is responsible for the sulphur dioxide produced that creates acid rain? who is responsible for the methane that covers agriculture over the world? who is responsible for the carbon monoxide that comes out of any engine that allows incomplete combustion that reacts with sunlight..that can cause eye irritations, destroy the ozone layer, bad for our lungs, sometimes, even death? the drug abuse of animals.. corporate farms that produces cows with artificial harmones that some of them produces infection in their body systems that the attributes to the bacteria count of the milk that they produce when we milk them in our milk. mad cow disease?

Is it you? is it me? maybe.. we don't bother to find out about the things we own and use and see how it's going to affect us as time grows closer

Corporations never admit guilt for everything horrible they have caused for humankind. they try to fight their way in courts, with their power and their authority through their profits > everything corporations done are most of the time right because of their power..that you can't beat. All in the search for wealth and property and power, we allow the creation of something that destroys us. the animals, the environment, mankind, morals? i'm not quite sure.. something for the goodwill of the majority? if it was ever part of their intention, or if it crossed their minds ):

If someday destroying pollution becomes more important than buying a nike shirt, if someday clean air is met with more regard that making big bucks, that the earth will be preserved for much longer periods, then animals can survive longer, then us human beings will have a better future to look forward to.

Lets look upon the history of corporate criminals. there have been 100+ corporate companies that have been sued in court over the 1990s. all they did is paid fines of thousands, to millions. failure to conform to the law, and social norms with respect to lawful behaviours. again and again after problem, if you betray the law - it doesnt actually matter. it matters about being cost-effective, if the chance of getting caught and the penalty is less than the cause to comply is just a business decision. corporations risk breaking the laws, and risk our lives and our goodwill and our safety and our environment for the search of profit > because breaking this laws is all about a business situation, the chances and economics of not getting caught or if so how little do they have to lose from what they have already earned.

Our civilization is not flying because its not built according to the law of dynamics, some people have seen the ground rising up, some people have seen the fall of living systems, the declination of life supports, the ecosystem that runs 30million other species and us human beings that are getting to fade day by day. theres not a single scientific period published durign the last 25 years that will contradict this scenario.

(Nobel Prize-winning Economist..i forgot his name, mentioned this)

"Can a building have moral opinions? social responsibility? if a buildng can't, does that mean a corporation cant? a corporation is simply a legal structure(artificial) but the people engaged in, the stockholders, the executives, the employees > they have moral responsibilities."

conclusion:
Globalization: now i start to understand why so many university graduates are going anti-free trade and stuff.
I'm not quite sure if people at Corporations work and are driven to carry out their moral responsibilities given being consumed in an environment of which profit is the ultimate goal, of which money-making represents the determined prospect of every company. Have you ever came across a MNC that went with a slogan and core purpose like - "We want to make the world a better place! To save ecosystems! To save mothernature! To save us alL! That's what we're here to achieve, for you and for me!" ....maybe it'ld be my utopian dream that future corporations would evolve with that kind of inspirations.


Draw your own conclusion though, I know i sounded really bias. But I hope that was reliable to a large extent based on all the facts i threw in and perspectives i drew out.

\listening to Of Montreal - Rapture rapes the muses