4 ms·

Nope. Organizations come in many kinds, including corporations. They're all just ways of organizing people, who have rights that they can choose to come togethe

Nope. Organizations come in many kinds, including corporations. They're all just ways of organizing people, who have rights that they can choose to come together to exercise. That's it.

hashkb 6y ago
Are you saying that the political will of a corporation is no more or less than the sum of the political wills of the people in the corporation?
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  In theory, yes. In practice though, it's the shareholders that call the shots, and the employees are threatened with getting fired if they try and organize and start making demands. But that's where governments can come in, and implement things like basic worker rights.
  - scatters 6y ago
    In theory, that's how it works in practice. In practice, though, the shareholders have a lot less power than that: they only get to vote at the AGM, and that's very much a managed democracy - the managers being the C-suite, and the majority of shares held by institutional investors who will vote whatever way is recommended by the officers.
  - Bakary 6y ago
    I don't think it's even true in theory since corporations live in a larger context of the country or countries they are in. As for countries themselves, we could argue that they also live in a context of all the other countries, but I would say that for the reasonably large ones it is the case their political will is roughly equivalent to the collective sum.
- inscionent 6y ago
  Technically the political will of a corporation is no more or less than the sum of its bank account. To this point maybe no more or less than the sum of its Named Officers' political wills.
blackbrokkoli 6y ago
That is wrong actually. Organizations are even somewhat defined by having goals or agendas independent of the entire body of people making it up. That is not neccessarily bad (It would suck if the tax office would entirely redefine itself every couple year) but it is something to be aware of.
arghwhat 6y ago
Nope, corporations are what is called a "legal person", which is, well, a "person" of sorts. That is, it is its own entity with its own will and liability for its actions. This legal person is effectively controlled by a very small group of people, but it outlives them as these titles are replaced (new CEO, changing board). Everyone else contribute to its function, but not its interests. They are recruited to work for the entity through an uneven symbiotic relationship, where the entity covers the simple short-term needs of individuals. It then uses it the power amassed to benefit itself, and those in control. Either by simply being large, or by trading the immense resources it can produce. To the entity, the individual is no more important than a random cell in your body (left small toe fibroblast anyone?). And just like in your body, only a small number of cells get to drive the machine. This is very different from a grouping of individuals, where individuals are merely cooperating towards a democratically elected goal.
- naim08 6y ago
  Thats right, corporations have legal person status & protection (kinda odd) like any other American citizen, but you can argue they have more rights than the average american citizen. Anyway, corporations, for-profit that is, are driven by one tenet & one tenet alone, which is their bottom-line. And they only answer to their ruling shareholders. Customers, employees, their own product, the USA govt, etc are all secondary.

Nope. Organizations come in many kinds, including corporations. They're all just ways of organizing people, who have rights that they can choose to come together to exercise. That's it.

hashkb 6y ago

Are you saying that the political will of a corporation is no more or less than the sum of the political wills of the people in the corporation?

Cthulhu_ 6y ago
In theory, yes. In practice though, it's the shareholders that call the shots, and the employees are threatened with getting fired if they try and organize and start making demands. But that's where governments can come in, and implement things like basic worker rights.
- scatters 6y ago
  In theory, that's how it works in practice. In practice, though, the shareholders have a lot less power than that: they only get to vote at the AGM, and that's very much a managed democracy - the managers being the C-suite, and the majority of shares held by institutional investors who will vote whatever way is recommended by the officers.
- Bakary 6y ago
  I don't think it's even true in theory since corporations live in a larger context of the country or countries they are in. As for countries themselves, we could argue that they also live in a context of all the other countries, but I would say that for the reasonably large ones it is the case their political will is roughly equivalent to the collective sum.
inscionent 6y ago
Technically the political will of a corporation is no more or less than the sum of its bank account. To this point maybe no more or less than the sum of its Named Officers' political wills.

blackbrokkoli 6y ago

That is wrong actually. Organizations are even somewhat defined by having goals or agendas independent of the entire body of people making it up. That is not neccessarily bad (It would suck if the tax office would entirely redefine itself every couple year) but it is something to be aware of.

arghwhat 6y ago

Nope, corporations are what is called a "legal person", which is, well, a "person" of sorts. That is, it is its own entity with its own will and liability for its actions. This legal person is effectively controlled by a very small group of people, but it outlives them as these titles are replaced (new CEO, changing board). Everyone else contribute to its function, but not its interests. They are recruited to work for the entity through an uneven symbiotic relationship, where the entity covers the simple short-term needs of individuals. It then uses it the power amassed to benefit itself, and those in control. Either by simply being large, or by trading the immense resources it can produce. To the entity, the individual is no more important than a random cell in your body (left small toe fibroblast anyone?). And just like in your body, only a small number of cells get to drive the machine. This is very different from a grouping of individuals, where individuals are merely cooperating towards a democratically elected goal.

naim08 6y ago
Thats right, corporations have legal person status & protection (kinda odd) like any other American citizen, but you can argue they have more rights than the average american citizen. Anyway, corporations, for-profit that is, are driven by one tenet & one tenet alone, which is their bottom-line. And they only answer to their ruling shareholders. Customers, employees, their own product, the USA govt, etc are all secondary.