Corporate responsibility is bad joke
By: Phil Safari on Apr 16 2010Category: Life
Many people expressed outrage over the government’s expanded role in healthcare, citing the inefficiency and waste that will no doubt come with it. I don’t like it any more than they do, but I’d rather take my chances with the government than with corporations because even if the government wastes 70% of the resources, at least 30% went to the public good.
Corporations are not our friends, and they have burned the American people not once, not twice, but THREE times since 1980, each time more costly than the previous one. In the 80s it was the Savings & Loan debacle; in 2001 it was the Enron/Worldcom meltdown; and most recently it was the subprime mortgage mess. When will we ever learn that corporations cannot be trusted to do what’s best for the public when there is big money to be made otherwise?
And at least government is somewhat accountable to the public. What’s your remedy for a corporation acting badly? Fire the CEO, and watch him glide to the next position on his golden parachute? File criminal charges, and watch him get a slap on the wrist despite ruining many more lives than the government ever could have in the same amount of time?
I’m sorry, but it’s three strikes and you’re out. Corporate responsibility is a seriously bad joke.
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I’m not sure you using the word “oxymoron” in the standard way. An oxymoron is a contradiction in terms; it names something that literally cannot exist.
So, you seem to be saying that it is *impossible* for corporations to act in responsible way.
But your only evidence for it is that you’ve seen *some* corporations act in an *irresponsible* way. That’s rather thin evidence for a universal claim.
Good point, Chris. I need to reword that part… “bad joke” works too, I guess. In fairness, there are a lot of corporations, and not all of them are irresponsible. So obviously, it’s not impossible. However, there are enough bad examples to create that impression.
But I do feel that as long as corporations myopically seek to maximize shareholder return (at all costs, in the extreme), it’s only a matter of time before the next irresponsible meltdown. The trouble these days is that it doesn’t even have to be a lot of them; just a few “too big to fail” giants acting badly can easily take down the whole system.
This reminds me of the old “appearance vs. reality” debate. The appearance of reality is often more powerful than reality itself, and unfortunately it’s often all we have to live by. We can only hope that appearance and reality are closely related; sadly that isn’t always the case.