Hi Everyone:
This week I'm going to talk about Corporations, the omnipresent institutions of our time. I'm going to answer a question that involves the responsibility of each member of a corporation.
¿Should Individuals (directors, employees, sharholders) bear any responsibility for the actions of a corporation? If so to what Deegree?
Before answering this question, I want to let you know, that I fully watched this magnificent documentary called "The Corporation", which you can find here www.thecorporation.com. Most of the Information in this entry is based on "The Corporation", if not I'll let you know.
After watching a lot of stuff and seeing all the cases of social irresponsibilty that corporations around the world commit, I can certainly say that individuals MUST bear responsibilities for a Corporation's actions, for instance, MONSTANTO's formerly* owned rBGH is a Hormone that makes the COWS produce more MILK, but at the expense of the Cow's Health and also at expense of the humans drinking the MILK of the farmers who use the rBGH to make their cows "profitable".
Then I ask, ¿Aren't the people working in MONSANTO responsible for producing and commercializing such a harmful prodcut, knowing their consequences, but purposely hiding them in order to sell their product and generate more profit? HELL they are responsible, if not, who's the one making decissions in those companies, maybe the shareholders or the table of directors are forcing the CEO to sell that garbage, but finally they are PEOPLE, HUMAN people who makes conscious decisions, but sadly with no moral integrity, they don't care about doing harm to others, if they are making profit.
I think that's a crime and people should get punished for their irresponsible actions, there's always people behind the corporations. People could say that a Corporation is a Legal Person, but at the end a Corporation is no more than a group of people working for their interests, and in many cases doning so no matter the consequences to others or the planet.
As Noam Chomsky says "Corporations are special persons desigend by law to be concerned for their stockholders and not for the community or laboral force" and that's exactly what MONSANTO did when they began to sold their rBGH to farmers accross America; they did it only looking for profit, they didn't care about the cows nor the people who were drinking the milk and would probably get a cancer*.
Take an example of yours, just think of a person you know who runs a company, ¿Isn't him responsible for what the company does? Obviously they do, If a friend of mine has a company and he decides to sell a genetically modified products that can 'cause cancer, and he knows that, then he's responsible for selling harmful products, and the fact is that in many cases, and almost all the cases people don't know that the sausage, or the tuna, or the milk, they are eating or drinking will probably 'cause them a disease; when this happens individuals are bearing the actions of their corporations.
I think making money is very important, but the how is even more important, and the moral side is also more important, if want to make money do it honestly, under the law, and most important taking into account the welfare of our environment and the people.
Sebastán Posada
International Business Student
EAFIT University
