This was a response to comment on the immediately preceding post. It suggests a practical way of bringing corporations under the law without depending on corrupt politicians who have been bought off. The recent actions by Massey Energy, Goldman Sachs, and Wellpoint suggest remedial measures are long overdue.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
Corporations are institutionally incapable of acting In addition, their wealth and power make elected officials Corporations have become a new aristocracy, largely above In other words, we have created and sustained institutional The alternative to relying on If a corporation breaks the law Top management is prohibited from The penalty is so draconian that This environment will hopefully The logic of the corporate death <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This was a response to comment on the immediately preceding post. It suggests a practical way of bringing corporations under the law without depending on corrupt politicians who have been bought off. The recent actions by Massey Energy, Goldman Sachs, and Wellpoint suggest remedial measures are long overdue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-and-political-theory"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nethically. <\/span>They will only do so
\nwhen the penalty for being caught breaking the law is greater than any likely
\nprofit from doing so. <\/span>The recent
\ncases of Massey Energy, Goldman Sachs, and now Wellpoint demonstrate this sad
\ntruth. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nunlikely allies against them except for the short term – and than, as the
\nRepublicans and too many Democrats demonstrate, they will do what they can to
\nappear on the people’s side while loyally serving their real paymasters. Nor is
\ncorporate media an ally.<\/p>\n
\nthe law, which they simply buy off or pay relatively painless fines. <\/span>Unlike the old aristocracy, neither
\ndecency nor generosity amount for much because should any CEO so act, it will
\nbe at the cost of profit and of share value, and they will risk being ousted in
\na take over bid. <\/span>Such positions of
\nleaders attract sociopaths who will use the perks of leadership primarily to
\nfeather their own nests.<\/p>\n
\nsociopaths morally worse than the old aristocracy, organizations that will
\nactually penalize decent people acting decently if it costs them profit. <\/span>The only likely exceptions will be the
\nfirst generation of founders, if they have a strong ethical vision. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n
\npoliticians, and a reasonable one, is the “Corporate Death Penalty.”<\/p>\n
\nthree times within 20 years, using the same logic conservatives love to employ
\nwith real people, the company has its assets sold to the highest bidder with
\nthe money going first to pay for damages, second, to pay for the sustenance and
\nretraining of its wag employees, and if any remains, to pay off public debt. <\/span>If a national law is its third strike,
\nit goes to reduce the national debt.
\n<\/span>If a state law, it reduces the state debt. Shareholders get
\nnothing. <\/span>Their shares’ value falls
\nto zero.<\/p>\n
\never working together, to destroy the culture of corruption they created and
\nsustained. <\/span>The firm’s name is
\nabolished for a generation. <\/span>It is
\nas dead as a company can be.<\/p>\n
\nwith a second conviction share prices will suffer seriously. <\/span>This in itself will virtually guarantee
\nthat top management will be ousted as a preventive measure, and very strict
\nrules enforced vis-\u00e0-vis the law.
\n<\/span>Even a first conviction will raise questions about the competence of top
\nmanagement, and may cost them their positions. <\/span><\/p>\n
\npush back against the advantages sociopaths currently possess in rising to
\nleadership positions. <\/span>If it fails
\nto do so, at least it will help keep them under control, or eliminate them from
\ntop positions.<\/p>\n
\npenalty is to create such circumstances that it will almost never need to be
\nemployed. <\/span>One ‘execution’ should
\ndo the job because top management will then rigorously self-police because they
\nstand to lose a great deal with even a second conviction. <\/span>And if they do not, shareholders will.
\nThe profit orientation of the market will then work to improve behavior rather
\nthan as it does now, to encourage corruption.<\/p>\n
\n<\/font><\/p>\n