One hundred and fifty years ago, the business corporation was a relatively small and insignificant institution. Today, however, it has become a very pervasive institution that knows almost no boundaries.
Mandate, power and influence
Just as the church or a monarchy or the communist party were very pervasive in another time and place, today the corporation is the dominant institution. A legally obtained mandate made it possible for companies to gain extraordinary power and influence in our lives during this time. We could therefore ask ourselves whether it was a change for the better or for the worse and whether what these corporations are doing is right.
Bad apples, integrity and the lack of public control
Partly because there were several scandals and debates that could give rise to doubts about this, several investigations into the integrity and lack of public control of the various corporations took place. A media debate about the fundamental operating principle of these corporations also followed, but it was all quickly dismissed by the state as: that everything would not be too bad and that it only concerned a few ,bad apples, (5%) would be unfair and that the other 95% could be trusted, and the actions of these corporations were also reduced to ,just, a game of ,follow the leader,. But through the voices of various directors, whistleblowers and brokers, gurus and spies, insiders and outsiders who broke their silence, it soon became clear that this was not just about a ,few bad apples, and that there may be much more than the , one and the other, is not correct and they represent the corporations as a paradox (a statement that contradicts itself), as if it were an institution that can create great wealth but that it can also cause enormous and often hidden damage.
A puzzle and a table
Some see a corporation as part of a jigsaw puzzle (the pieces) and society as a surface (table) on which you place the puzzle to put it together. But if you remove one of the two, the picture is no longer complete and you cannot complete the jigsaw puzzle because you then have no puzzle or no table and without one of the two you cannot put the puzzle together. One cannot exist without the other, because it is not complete and it will not work. You can also see a corporation as a sports team where you have different types of players, some players defend and tackle, other players run on the wings and attack but the whole team has one thing in common, all players have a common goal and that is succeed and win as a team. A corporation is like a family, where different people in the company work together and have a common goal and it should serve people for the good.
Creations, hypocrisy and the corporate agenda
Many ,wise, people also believe that people serve today’s corporations and not the other way around, as it should be and as it actually was in the past. If we try to learn the history of these schemes, we soon find ourselves in a dark maze. We encounter an indiscernible combination of prejudices, a bewildering ostrich policy of the law, a deliberate silence on the part of the doctors, and sheer hypocrisy. Just like the telephone system, corporations are extremely powerful, reaching almost everything and everyone everywhere and nowhere, and are quite difficult to avoid, and may not always change people’s lives for the better as so many of us want to do and make you believe. Corporations are artificial creations, one could almost say they are monsters that try to make as much profit as possible, at the expense and expense of everyone. Or like a whale, a large and gentle fish, but one that can swallow you whole and devour you at any time. The word ,company, is therefore linked to the word ,agenda, and thus we get the word ,company agenda,. Corporate agenda, we hear it more often these days, as if it were an agenda to see that it is almost time for these corporations to conquer the world.
Engeland, year 1712
The modern corporation grew out of the Industrial Age, which began in 1712 when Englishman Thomas Newcomen improved on an earlier invention that already existed. It was a water pump, to pump water from the mines because floods often prevented the miners from digging deep and a lot for the highly sought-after minerals. Thanks to the new, improved pump, they could now extract larger quantities of minerals (coal) much faster because the miners no longer had to manually extract water from the shafts. It was all about productivity, more coal per man, per hour and the Industrial Age was born. It automatically meant more steel per man, per hour, more textiles per man, per hour, more cars per man, per hour, and today it’s more computer chips per man, per hour, more gadgets per man, per hour. The process has remained almost the same, but nowadays they produce much more refined, refined products.
Original state
Corporations were originally associations of people chartered by the state to undertake or carry out some specific work, such as building a bridge over a river. There were only a few of these state-chartered corporations at the time , but those that existed were extremely well regulated by the state and very closely monitored for how long they could operate, exactly what they had to make, what they had to maintain. and whatever they did, everything was very well kept by the state. The corporations of that time could not and were not allowed to own other corporations and the shareholders of that time were reliable and so on. It was considered a supported entity that was a gift from the people to serve the common good.
Civil war, smart lawyers, freedom and pen strokes
The Civil War in America and the Industrial Revolution created a huge growth in corporations and so there was an explosion of railroads that needed a lot of land to build their tracks, banks and heavy industry. But some smart corporate lawyers realized 150 years ago that they needed more power to operate on such a large scale, and so they set out to remove some of the restrictions that had historically been placed on the corporate form. One of those restrictions was that people had equal rights. No state could deprive a person of life, liberty or property without due process of law and that was to ensure that the state could not simply deprive a person of life, liberty and property as they have done before a big part in our history. What happened next was that these corporations went to court. Corporate lawyers are very smart, they said: You can’t deprive a person of life, liberty and property, so as a corporation we are a person. The high court agreed and the problem was done, even though these restrictions were intended to protect the freed slaves. Six hundred thousand people have been killed to get human rights for people, but with a few strokes of the pen in the last thirty years, judges have applied these rights to capital and property, while stripping away human rights and it is all nullified. done.
Responsibly liable
One of the downsides of a partnership is that you are always personally responsible for your actions. In a corporation you have the great advantage that it gives you what you want at the moment, namely: limited liability. You start with a group of people who want to invest their money in a company. This group of people then submits an application to the state for a corporation. The state approves your application and the corporation is born. Now your corporation legally operates as an individual legal entity and is no longer a group of people.
Cons
Of course, not all corporations are bad and they do everything to make things better for the next generations and invest a lot of money in research and the development of better methods. Of course there are many disadvantages, especially due to the negligence of the state due to the lack of public control and integrity and the morals of the corporations, it is also about making profit and for many it is never enough. It may even be the case that, in order to save production costs, it involves underpaid work for some people, up to and including child labor in very poor countries. And there are several disadvantages to mention.