Changing the Corporation

I live in a fantasy world. I am the most unrealistic person the world is ever seen.

I am so naïve there is a picture of me in the dictionary beside the word naive.

Yet I try to be practical.

In a perfect world we would outlaw major corporations.

But that is not going to happen, so instead we must try another tack.

Let us ask what happened to our major corporations. How did they get so off kilter? How were they able to grow so big so as to become willing collaborators with big government in establishing a New World Order?

Our New World Order is fascist.

The core of the corporation is the committee. The committee is where ideas are discussed and hammered out. On its surface the committee seems to be a good idea. Theoretically the best ideas should rise to the top.

But experience suggests that this is not so.  Often the worst ideas rise to the top.

Why?

Because people value collegiality over confrontation in a group setting.  

In time slick leaders take advantage of this and learn how to game a committee to their advantage.

People with good ideas that promote long term value over immediate profits are labeled crackpots.  Legitimate criticism is derided as naysaying.  Rewards are given to sycophants and puppets who do the leader’s bidding.

In time, good people throw up their hands and leave the committee as it becomes increasingly dominated by the immoral values of a tyrant.

What can we do?

We can and must return to the sensible controls that our founding fathers had placed on corporations.

Each and every day the founding fathers look smarter.

In the days of our founding fathers, corporations were limited as to what they could do. They had specific purposes for specific lengths of times. The owners of the corporations could be held personally liable for any malfeasance of the corporation.  Profits could be limited to a specific amount.  Salaries were limited and defined.  Corporations were not permitted to own other corporations.  This was not only important with respect to limiting profits; doing so also promoted accountability.

By placing controls on corporations, we prevent hucksters from entering the corporation to begin with. Once the huckster sees that he has no cash cow to exploit, the huckster moves away.

This is a good thing.

Sensible reforms will enable corporations to be more responsive and sensitive to the people that they serve.

Corporations must exist for us, not we for them.