From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Wed Jun 30 2004 - 15:06:19 BST
Hi Johnny,
> Do you defend corporations to the point of not caring at all how they
> manipulate people's desires for their bottom line?
Do you feel corporations are manipulating you, that you are helpless
victim of advertising and can't decide for yourself what's good for you
and your family?
> The only ethical imperitive of a corporation, their highest value, is to
> maximize shareholder value. Not quality, shareholder value. They care
> about ethics only enough so as not to decrease the value of the shares.
To maximize shareholder value, corporations must produce goods and
services people will voluntarily purchase in the marketplace. Their
customers, not you or me, decide on the quality (value) of what the
corporations offer. If you value the quality of individual freedom, that's
the way it should be don't you think?
> If
> everything is basically now owned by corporations or controlled by
> corporations, don't you think that quality suffers?
Not if quality is defined by the customers the corporations serve rather
than government bureaucrats. How long now do you have to wait in England
or Canada for elective surgery. Compare that to the U.S.
> Does free enterprise necessarily mean we have to have corporations as we
> do?
I wouldn't mess with our current corporate setup because it has produced
the highest standard of living known to man.
> Isn't working for Microsoft's shareholdrrs like working for people
> who "know better" about the "greater good"?
How? Microsoft shareholders are people just like you and me, wanting a
decent return on their investments and willing to risk losing their
savings by investing in stocks. Employees of Microsoft are free to get
jobs with other companies or start up their own, and many have. So I don't
see your point and hope you will further explain.
> And doesn't this corporate system just make the rich richer, for no real
> reason other than they are already rich? Where is the quality in that?
I don't understand those who envy the rich. I'd love to be rich myself.
Wouldn't you so that you could use your money to "do good?" When I go to
the Met Museum in NYC I'm grateful for the rich who created it. Anyway,
the rich furnish the capital that keep the economic engine going, like
John Kerry's billionaire wife. Bless her heart. :-)
Best regards,
Platt
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