5 ms·

Are contracts allowed in your worldview? Contracts must be signed by individuals, but when they act as representatives of a company, they are legally binding fo

• kerkeslager 7y ago
  Correct. At a small scale, it makes sense for people to appoint another person whom they trust to represent them in negotiation. But in a lot of cases, that's not how representatives are chosen. Particularly in corporations, the leadership of a corporation was not chosen by the employees to represent them, and in fact often doesn't even have the best interest of the employees in mind. A lot of the largest problems in our society arise from this fact. Consider the case of a company that agrees to sell to a larger corporation, under the condition that they lay off half their workforce in advance of the sale. Surely we can agree that the laid-off workers were not fairly represented by the person signing the contract. One could argue that the workers agreed to give up some of their rights in their employment contract, but I'd argue that they did so under duress: their option is sign the contract and work for the company, or starve and let their families starve. Sure, they can go work for another company, but other companies will require them to similarly sign away their rights. This shouldn't be taken as a recommendation to blithely break contract law. Corporations don't have rights, but they do have power, and it would be unwise to behave as if they can't make your life miserable if you decide to cross them.