On Corporations

On Corporations

By: Don Bailey

The discussion of corporations has been long involved in political discussion. The risk of corporate control over the fait of individuals lives is described as a lost battle in the status quo. Corporate interest has invaded the political, the medical, and the social. In this essay we will analyze the corporate effect on all three arenas of society as well we will look at a viable alternative to the corporately dominated world.

The political arena is flooded with corporate lobbyist as well as campaign funding from some of the biggest figures in the corporate world. Often politicians are placed in elections with singular political intentions. The effect this has had on state operations has had seemingly devastating consequences. Americans find it harder to communicate their needs to government officials because they only can offer a vote, while corporate entities can offer millions of dollars for campaign financing which happens to be very effective when competing against noble politicians who are only funded by socially responsible investors or themselves. This means that it is hard to find a politician that is not connected to a corporate institution or unwilling to advance corporate interest. Our politicians are seduced by a system that is run by financing for career positions. 

The medical industry is there for the health of individuals or at least that is what we assume. Still corporations have been able to dominate the medical arena for several points. First, the insurance industry has codified its position in the medical industry, now hospitals are unwilling to accept those without health insurance which leads to severe illness and premature death among the individuals comprising the lower classes of our society. The private insurance industry is the sole reason why the U.S. has yet to follow other industrial nations to a universally insured society by the government. The fact that profit margins are so great means that the insurance industry is able to pay politicians loads of money to keep funding for the medical industry as is. Second, the medical industry is controlled by pharmaceuticals. The proven side effects of most of the mainstream drugs are evidentially worse than the symptom they are there to treat. The problem is that corporations are obsessed with profit maximization which equates to outsourcing cost. Hence, once a drug is viable for preventing one thing, regardless of what it causes, there is no financial benefit from eradicating side-effects if there are no alternatives. Third, chronically ill patients are denied access to life support too often because of financial interest. It is of great importance to keep the decision for life and death out of the hands of corporately controlled institutions. Such an exercise of biopower inevitably places the individual at the bottom of the totem poll.

Corporations are also very effective at controlling social discourse which is the basis for a social existence. Corporations do this by controlling what messages are served in the media. We realize that media stories are controlled by corporations with an interest in profit. Therefore any news that are counterproductive to profit maximization are simply not viable for media agencies. Tactics are used to seduce the public into buying certain products are voting certain ways. This form of access to the public mind essentially allows corporations to control what society thinks.

We realize that corporations was once a necessary addition to the capitalist mode of production. But in the status quo the inevitable pathological structure of corporations requires the need for a mobilization of citizens to promote social responsibility. We should be able to vote to eradicate corporations who have been proven to act negligently towards humanity.