Blog 12

My favorite quote from Natasha, the Kinko's co-worker, is "..in part people are kept from becoming their dysfunctional selves by working for a corporation." In the first part of her essay, she explains the big brother feeling of constantly being watched by cameras or secret shoppers that comes with working for a corporation. Towards the end, she explains the positives of benefits, not having whack job bosses, and the security. She is very happy with the balance between the two, though she realizes that Kinko's is one of the better corporations.

In The Corporation, it is said that a corporation is separate ownership from management, where one group is the shareholders and the other runs the firm. "That unique design was believed by many to be a recipe for corruption and scandal." Especially in the olden times in Europe where one of the corporations, South Sea Company, had done just that. Corporations change as technology does, which started with the invention of the steam engine, and now includes the internet. This allowed them to become more global and expand their communication. Because of this new global expansion of corporations, governments have less effect and even powerless in a sense. "Corporations now govern socciety, perhaps more than governments themselves do." This is a scary scary thought, especially after the creation of the WTO which has standards to pressure governments to change their policies and laws.

"The corporation had become a dangerous mix of power and unaccountability." Humor is the best way to get a point across, so the first cartoon pertains to the Enron crash, where poor reporting and loop holes allowed Enron to hide millions of dollars of debt, which eventually led to bankrupt. The second cartoon pertains to Pfizer who donates money, helps the city, and seems like ahighly respectable corporation. In 2009, he plead guilty to the biggest health care fraud ever. He illegally marketed 4 of the drugs his company supplies. "Capitalism with a conscience" at it's finest just to prove that all this environmental and social initiatives are an act and a game to them.

"It compels executives to prioritize the interests of their companies and shareholders above all others and forbids them from being socially responsible- at least genuinely so."