Do Corporations Need Regulations?

Ð'ЃgI hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.Ð'Ѓh

Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US president 1801-1809

During the eighteenth century, corporations had fewer powers that we do now. They did not have limited liability. They were chartered for a limited period of time, (10 or 20 years), and for a specific public purpose only, such as building a bridge. Corporations were viewed differently in early times. They were thought to be good ways to serve the public good. But over the time, people forgot that corporations are starting to get so powerful and that they need to be strongly controlled. Also, corporations began to gain more power than the wealthy elite. Corporations like the East India Company and the Hudson Bay Company had been the rulers of America. So when the constitution was written, corporations were left out of the Constitution. From the past, corporations had been looking for a way to control state regulation and taxation. They did, by being able to control it by having the federal government say you can't discriminate, when discrimination meant any rule that applied just to corporations, such as railroads. Because Corporations cannot be trusted to voluntarily protect the environment, they require regulation.

Whenever we fight for clean drinking water, or clean air, or a safe workplace, we are likely to find a corporation on the other side of the issue. The goal of a corporation is, first, to survive, and, second, to return a profit to its shareholders, not to mention for money and if the air has to be fouled to accomplish these goals, then the air will be fouled. Meaning, the corporations will do anything to keep these goals even if it means that they have to cause pollution or some issues. Pollution is one of the problems by the corporations that affect us. The Business Council for Sustainable Development thinks of this as Ð'ЃgToday, for instance, the earth's atmosphere is providing the valuable service of acting as a dump for pollutants; those enjoying this service rarely pay a reasonable price for it,". This is an example of corporations Ð'ЃgexternalizingÐ'Ѓh their costs. By using the air as a free dump, corporations are able to get away with paying the costs for waste disposal to the people while they profit. This is standard business practice.

At the same time, the influence of business is extremely strong over the daily lives of people. The temptation of high salaries in corporation business drags the smart, aggressive people into the corporate world, rather than into government or education, where it is most needed. This just even increases the power of corporations. When the education system is neglected, corporations educate workers and potential workers for their own purposes and not for the environment. This can make good, loyal workers that donÐ'Ѓft mean that they will become good citizens that understand the proper role of corporations. They may just turn out to be greedy, corrupt, money lovers in the end.

Another issue is that because of the growth of corporate power, the reliability for enterprises to workers and the communities has declined a lot for the past twenty years. So in other words, workers donÐ'Ѓft find other job reliable to live with and frequently go into the corporation world, where there is sure money for their living.

Right now about more than a quarter of the world's economic jobs come from the 200 largest corporations. Also one-third of world trade takes place in different sections of a single global company. This means that prices are set, not by the free market, but by corporate leaders. With the unions continually declining in the private sector, transnational corporations are now starting to have more power over the political system.

The disadvantages of the corporation developments are a shrinking tax base, a speed up of joblessness, building up of insecurity in the work place, increasing poverty and by taking advantage of the increasing global profitable opportunities is the fact that there are inequalities where there are growing highly, super rich people and poor. This is not good for the political image.

Corporations affect other issues. Corporations are one of the main contributors to the depletion of natural resources and pollution. There have been several accidents of oil spills and acid rains, causing natural disasters. Also it worsens the issue of global warming. This corporation issue also has an effect on other countries.Ð'Ѓh Competitiveness" is what is felt between corporations and to win it involve "downsizing"