The Corporation

Michael Moore's documentary entitled The Corporation detailed the underpinnings of how a corporation works. As a documentary, The Corporation had a responsibility to show both sides of the argument, meaning the good and bad aspects of corporatism. I thought it did a commendable job trying to support all of its claims with unquestionably true evidence. Therefore, I found the documentary to be somewhat enlightening because of its accuracy. Although it blatantly opposed corporations, The Corporation actually produced a balanced argument at times.

First of all, The Corporation quotes the present-day corporation as a "legal person." In other words, everybody who is a part of the corporation is working toward the same goal of unmatched monetary success. The corporation thus works solely for profit, and everybody on board does so with that idea in mind. Therefore, the corporation is seen as one entity despite its numerous and varied people. However, all of its people are one entity only within the bounds of corporate law. If someone within the corporation has an idea that could be beneficial but leads to the corporation's demise, that person is no longer part of the corporate entity and will face consequences for it. As a result, The Corporation likens the modern corporation as a minimized form of fascism. After all, Mussolini did run the "Corporate State" government during his rule of Italy.

Yet the caustic effects of corporations only begin administratively. Beyond that, corporations are simply "machines of negative externality." According to Milton Friedman, a negative externality is an effect upon the rest of society that is hurtful but beyond the scope of the people who cause it. In many cases, environmental treatment is listed as the principal negative externality of many corporations. Some others include creating a greater rift between upper and lower classes, unnecessary competition and overproduction despite much milder demand, and complete disregard for its oppressive undertakings. Since corporations are defined by The Corporation to merely be bodies of profit, corporations work only toward that goal without considering their trails of destruction behind them. Therefore, the negative effects of corporations are treated as externalities rather than their own responsibilities.

Interestingly, all hope may not have been lost for corporations. Moore claims that corporations are completely unaware of their social tornadoes. However, the former CEO of Shell and other notable executives who run the corporate machines refute Moore saying that they do their work considering negative externalities. The only issue is that the corporations have not figured out an effective way to solve them yet. One CEO says that corporations can be their own solution to the problems they create as long as they work in conjunction with each other. I liken it to "one man's trash is another man's treasure." By establishing corporations to treat the negative externalities created by other corporations, we can harness the power of corporate focus and eliminate sets of problems. Ideally, every corporation would be treating some other corporation's mistakes, and corporations would have no negative effects upon society. The best we can do is only strive toward such a goal and at least limit the pervasiveness of negative externalities.