The Father of Economics Believed That Employees Should Own the Company

Adam Smith, the father of economics, pointed out in his book The Wealth of Nations,

"The directors of such [joint-stock] companies, however, being the managers rather of other people’s money than of their own, it cannot well be expected, that they should watch over it with the same anxious vigilance with which the partners in a private copartnery frequently watch over their own.... Negligence and profusion, therefore, must always prevail, more or less, in the management of the affairs of such a company."

In other words, when ownership is separated from those who manage the company, the managers will inevitably neglect the interests of the owners, leading to imprudent decision making within the company.

(Taken from http://www.ask.com/wiki/Criticisms_of_Corporations?qsrc=3044)

People Before Profits

"For the first 100 years after the founding of our country, no corporation was allowed to get a charter unless it could prove that it served the public interest, and charters came up for renewall every ten years or so; they didn't get a renewall unless they could prove that they served the public interest. That all changed after the supreme court ruling that made corporations equal to individuals in the late 1880's, and then, John D. Rockefeller stepped in and really made things get out of hand. We need to go back to an understanding that corporations are there to serve us." -- John Perkins (author of Confessions of An Economic Hit Man)

Oligarchical Corporations Are Psychopathic "Persons"

According to the fourteenth amendment of the United States constitution, corporations have the equal right to life, liberty, or property that you and I have. Don't believe me? Read it for yourself...

"14: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws..."

If you're still not convinced that the fourteenth amendment protects corporations' right to life, liberty, or property, don’t worry…neither am I. Originally, the fourteenth amendment was made to protect the rights of newly freed slaves after the end of the civil war. After the industrial revolution, however, some very clever lawyers convinced the Supreme Court that the fourteenth amendment protects corporations also.

Why is this a problem? Prior to this Supreme Court ruling, corporations had to prove that they served the public interest to get a charter and to maintain a charter. A corporation with the same rights as a living, breathing person only has to serve its own good. This is a problem because "corporations have no soul to be saved and no body to incarcerate." (Baron Thurlow)

I don't intend to label the leaders or citizens of oligarchical corporations as immoral or unethical anymore than I would label a slaveholder as immoral and unethical. In his personal life, a slaveholder may have been a kind and gentle person to children, the elderly, and even his own slaves. The institution however is most obviously unethical and immoral, and it breeds immoral and unethical practices.

Conversely, I cannot label the leaders or citizens of a church as moral or ethical. The only conclusion that I can deduce is that churches breed moral and ethical practices because of their structure and what they stand for.

So, if we must label a corporation as a person, then what kind of "person" is he? To answer this question, we must find what is common among all corporations; the answer is that all corporations are legally bound to place the financial interests of their owners above competing interests. Therefore, a corporation is a "person" that lives, first and foremost, to make money. And history shows us that the more oligarchical and less democratic a corporation is run, the more a corporation will attempt to pass off his own obligations and costs to an unaware or uncaring public--in order to make more money. Unmet obligations and unpaid costs result in environmental exploitation, human exploitation, slavery, the sale of harmful products, sweatshops, negligence resulting in employee deaths and injuries, and job outsourcing. Here are a few specific examples of costs that corporations unsuccessfully passed on to the public during the 1990's: (1) Exxon pled guilty to criminal charges related to the Valdez oil spill and paid $125 million (2) GE was guilty of defrauding the federal government and paid $9.5 million (3) Chevron was guilty of environmental violations and paid $6.5 million (4) Mitsubishi was guilty of anti-trust violations and paid $1.8 million (5) IBM was guilty of illegal exports and paid $8.5 million (6) Pfizer was guilty of anti-trust violations and paid $20 million (7) Odwalla was found guilty of food and drug violations and paid $1.5 million (8) Sears was guilty of financial fraud and paid $60 million. (If you want to read about 1,000's of more violations visit http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/)

In psychiatry there is a name for this kind of person that lack's moral and ethical intentions. I will give you the qualifiers of this psychiatric condition and you give me the diagnosis:

(1) Callous unconcern for the feelings of others
(2) Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships
(3) Reckless disregard for the safety of others
(4) Deceitfulness: repeated lying and conning others for profit
(5) Incapacity to experience guilt
(6) Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors

Give up? These are the psychiatric qualifiers of a psychopathic individual. What does this lead us to conclude about our decision to give corporations the same status as "persons"? Probably a conclusion similar to the one that Doctor Frankenstein came to after he created his own imitation of a "person".

(Information taken from the documentary The Corporation)

PBS Reports: Corporations Are Withholding $450 Billion in Pensions!

As you have seen in the news, chapter eleven banktrupcy has become very popular. In the recent past, it has become a strategic tool for companies, instead of a last resort. As a result, the P.B.G.C., the government agency that insures pension plans (i.e., 401Ks, traditional IRAs, etc.) that have been dumped to save a company from bankruptcy, is currently in a $23 Billion debt. It is estimated that of all corporate pension plans in the U.S., $450 Billion of your money is currently underpayed by corporations. The more businesses that get close to bankruptcy in the coming months and years will add to the P.B.G.C.'s debt. We are looking at another economic crisis and who will pay? The taxpayer.

In addition, (prior to the economic meltdown) those workers currently poised to retire only have enough money to live for seven to eight years in retirement. The average worker poised to retire is now deciding between working for the rest of her/his life to maintain a middle-class lifestyle or going on social security after a few years when the funds run out. While corporate elite salaries are getting larger and larger, corporations are passing off more and more of their expenses to the government. Who are these corporations actually serving?

(statistics from PBS Frontline: Inside United's Bankruptcy)

The World's Top 100 Economies

Of the world's top 100 economies, 51 were corporations in the year 2000. If you subtract the money made by these corporations from the national GDPs, I wonder if you would even find one country in the top 10.

What would the world be like if all businesses were democratic?

Democratic Business Principles from the WorldBlu.com Website:
1. PURPOSE AND VISION A democratic organization is clear about why it exists (its purpose) and where it is headed and what it hopes to achieve (its vision). These act as its true North, offering guidance and discipline to the organization's direction.
2. TRANSPARENCY Say goodbye to the "secret society" mentality. Democratic organizations are transparent and open with employees about the financial health, strategy, and agenda of the organization.
3. DIALOGUE + LISTENING Instead of the top-down monologue or dysfunctional silence that characterizes most workplaces, democratic organizations are committed to having conversations that bring out new levels of meaning and connection.
4. FAIRNESS + DIGNITY Democratic organizations are committed to fairness and dignity, not treating some people like "somebodies" and other people like "nobodies."
5. ACCOUNTABILITY Democratic organizations point fingers, not in a blaming way but in a liberating way! Democratic organizations are crystal clear about who is accountable and responsible for what.
6. INDIVIDUAL + COLLECTIVE In democratic organizations, the individual is just as important as the whole, meaning employees are valued for their individual contribution as well as for what they do to help achieve the collective goals of the organization.
7. CHOICE Democratic organizations thrive on giving employees meaningful choices.
8. INTEGRITY Integrity is the name of the game, and democratic companies have a lot of it. They understand that freedom takes discipline and also doing what's morally and ethically right.
9. DECENTRALIZATION Democratic organizations distribute leadership and power across their enterprise.
10. REFLECTION + EVALUATION Democratic organizations are committed to looking in the mirror and asking, "How can we be better?" -- not just quarterly or annually, but daily.