Preach. Corporate Statements aren't about values. They're about marketing and customer retention. Signaling a certain set of values is a way to attract a certain group of people (or to retain a broader, bland group of people). Corporate Statements are tools Capital uses for further capital accumulation.
Agreed, and I would add employee retention to that list. Just today my employer sent out an employee survey asking us to rank what environmental, social, and (corporate) governance topics are most important.
IIRC, SCOTUS decreed long ago that corporations rank above people. Probably true; they can kill will pollution and toxic, unhealthy foods. If we did that, it would be an illegal killing. They commit medical malpractice by reducing and eliminating health care availability while individual health care providers can be held liable. They buy politicians in a way we can’t (or enough of us try). And so on and so forth.
Unlike Dobbs pe Shelby County, Citizens United was jurisdictionally supported by prior decisions. So SCOTUS had been heading in that direction prior to Citizens. My point wasn’t the free speech but a line of cases finding not just that corporations were people but let’s say had rights superior to peoples’ rights.
Id be really interested in an overview of the case law that showed that, mostly because this is a thing that i believe and i love to be able to see the receipts of my beliefs. Perhaps youve got a link?
Making corporations superior to people was a long drawn out process going back a couple of decades.
Citizens United was decided on the idea that as peoples’ equals (if not superiors) then like we, the people, have a right to free speech of course corporations must as well.
I think, at least originally, the purpose of a corporation was to shield individuals from liability. This invented “corpus” could act like a “person” conducting a business, but would not expose its investors to bankruptcy if the business should fail. A cute idea, in a way, but ultimately it’s caused much more trouble than it has saved. Thanks for presenting such a clear picture of what we can expect from (and what will never happen with) a corporation.
Also I can't stand it that Substack doesn't have a quote feature for comments like [checks notes] just about every other commenting system on the modern internet.
My last job was at one of the Big Four, and they're the antithesis of a working environment. They have "values" Kool-Aid and the people who buy into it, will stare at ahead of you and repeat them like the benevolently radicalized. When George Floyd died, there was a post by the CEO about caring for black people and anti-racism training (that was stolen from the US office) we had to take, etc. It was all a bit performative. Then when there was a hike in Sinophobia due to COVID, there was a post by the CEO. It was pretty easy to switch the words around and get the George Floyd post. This was also really performative. Then we had some Sustainable Earth Month thing, and the CEO decided to go vegan for a month. I hope he didn't really hurt himself, coz I did see him eat chickens. Also, performative.
I really hated the hypocrisy and fakeness of the whole thing. I loved the work I did though, I just didn't love the place. The pay and benefits were also great! I think the reasons people work there, are the same reasons that people join terrorist organizations.
I'm curious about DEI training type stuff as an attempt to institutionalize a set of liberal values, that if one of the two political parties in the country outright rejects them, sort of places corporate america in the other party, in a way it doesn't want to acknowledge.
It's very conflict-driven how you get sorted into tribes with DEI and anyone in the OUT group is not allowed to take part in anything the IN-group does. I worked in a Big Four firm for my last job, and they were pretty clear I was not allowed to join the Black Book Club because I was white. I think everyone in my group was going to have a heart attack when I asked if it was ok.
Also, using the term, "ALLY", is also really war-driven too. We need a better word.
I can't wait to get my copy of Hammer! Pre-ordered and looking forward to reading, this is one of the great things about Substack: I get to find wonderful new books and authors!
I agree. Companies are not citizens. They have been endowed by law with commercial “personhood,” but they should not have political rights as if they were actually citizens. They cannot vote and their influence on elections ought to be much more tightly regulated than it is now. It is wrong for corporate interests to “own” office holders, as in practice it appears they do. The idea of “good corporate citizens” is nice but naive.
Thanks Hamilton. Very clear, as usual. The business' nature is to do what they do, profit. It should be up the the government to regulate these bloody bastards, but the government is corrupted and paid by them. They are pay partners. So? Who can help us? Possible answer: us.
Joining effort to limit the money making machine. Stay safe and keep on fighting.
Hamilton, one more comment. I re read your article. Is great, is true, but in addition to spit in the ceo's sandwich, what action do you suggest to fight these bastards? How can we limit their power if not by affecting their interest, i.e. bad PR?
Yeah, that has worked like a charm everywhere it has been tried.
Unions, governments and corporations are merely groups of people held by a common interest and guided by individual ethics. All three groups are easily corrupted. You cannot get good water from a contaminated well.
If you do not have the expertise, knowledge or time to contribute something meaningful to a discussion I would highly recommend staying quiet in the future. This train of reasoning is unoriginal and highly specious, anyone even superficially familiar with politics or economics, with the exception of cranks, would never entertain your implicit proposal that unions, government and corporations are incapable of producing anything good. Next time you make a criticism, keep in mind it is worthless if you don’t at least point in the direction of a better alternative.
A consequent notion is that all systems (social institutions, collective entities) are machines that operate according to their own programming. Our hope is to pit these machines against one another. Unions and governments are perhaps the only systems that are huge enough to nudge corporations in directions that support human flourishing.
Culture plays a role here as well, and that’s where sharing our best individual ideas might have some kind of impact. We are all involved personally, if infinitesimally, in moving culture along.
Just found this Substack from a link in one of my aggregators (memeorandum.com). Delighted that someone is exploring, with much more expertise, literary skill, and dedication, the topic of my very own Master’s thesis in 1974. There I looked into whether corporations could be moral and concluded that they are essentially amoral. This lifelong interest was inspired by a book from my father’s shelf: John Gall’s “How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail”.
The change I’m seeing lately (notably since 2020) is this: “Companies are very good at doing the specific things they do...” Even that’s becoming less and less true.
Feels like companies have been eating their own tails and it’s catching up with them. Cutting costs and alienating labor in the name of profit have resulted in worse and worse products and godawful service. I wonder whether we’ll get fed up enough to stop buying their junk, or we’re just too used to letting them call the shots?
Reading this brings to mind the grey goo and paper clip AI* thought experiments that are darlings of tech bro doom prophets. These ideas are illuminating, but couched in such fantastical terms that it can be difficult to see how applicable they are to already existing systems and technology.
We have already created self perpetuating machines that, left to their own devices, will destroy or reshape the world in pursuit of ultimately pointless goals. I wish the elon musk types would stop worrying about how a hypothetical AI could destroy the whole universe in 1000 years and focus on how existing technology is already well on its way to causing millions of deaths through climate change, not to mention the atrocious quality of life for so many who already are alive.
Sadly they would rather spend their time discussing masturbatory power fantasies where their technology saves/destroys the human race in an existential sci fi epic.
depressing but spot on...its so frustrating to see how many working class believe the shit fed to them by these companies and their mouthpieces. Fight back, join a union!!!
There was a time, back when Citizens United happened, that I saw published in many places a list of traits/behaviors that are assessed clinically to diagnose someone as a sociopath. Corporations, when viewed as a person, check all the boxes. That is a clear indication of just how much we should trust corporations' use of branding to convince us they are benign or benevolent. Thank you for that very concise list of the tools available to keep them in check. The boundaries we can set using the collective power of laws and unions are critical to putting corporations back on a leash.
Preach. Corporate Statements aren't about values. They're about marketing and customer retention. Signaling a certain set of values is a way to attract a certain group of people (or to retain a broader, bland group of people). Corporate Statements are tools Capital uses for further capital accumulation.
Agreed, and I would add employee retention to that list. Just today my employer sent out an employee survey asking us to rank what environmental, social, and (corporate) governance topics are most important.
IIRC, SCOTUS decreed long ago that corporations rank above people. Probably true; they can kill will pollution and toxic, unhealthy foods. If we did that, it would be an illegal killing. They commit medical malpractice by reducing and eliminating health care availability while individual health care providers can be held liable. They buy politicians in a way we can’t (or enough of us try). And so on and so forth.
it wasn't decided "long ago" - the Citizens' United SCOTUS ruling that declared corporations had "free speech" was only handed down in *2010*.
Unlike Dobbs pe Shelby County, Citizens United was jurisdictionally supported by prior decisions. So SCOTUS had been heading in that direction prior to Citizens. My point wasn’t the free speech but a line of cases finding not just that corporations were people but let’s say had rights superior to peoples’ rights.
Id be really interested in an overview of the case law that showed that, mostly because this is a thing that i believe and i love to be able to see the receipts of my beliefs. Perhaps youve got a link?
Making corporations superior to people was a long drawn out process going back a couple of decades.
Citizens United was decided on the idea that as peoples’ equals (if not superiors) then like we, the people, have a right to free speech of course corporations must as well.
I think, at least originally, the purpose of a corporation was to shield individuals from liability. This invented “corpus” could act like a “person” conducting a business, but would not expose its investors to bankruptcy if the business should fail. A cute idea, in a way, but ultimately it’s caused much more trouble than it has saved. Thanks for presenting such a clear picture of what we can expect from (and what will never happen with) a corporation.
"from the grim cement factory to the most welcoming technology firm."
I dunno, a bunch of tech firms are pretty grim these days.
Also I can't stand it that Substack doesn't have a quote feature for comments like [checks notes] just about every other commenting system on the modern internet.
My last job was at one of the Big Four, and they're the antithesis of a working environment. They have "values" Kool-Aid and the people who buy into it, will stare at ahead of you and repeat them like the benevolently radicalized. When George Floyd died, there was a post by the CEO about caring for black people and anti-racism training (that was stolen from the US office) we had to take, etc. It was all a bit performative. Then when there was a hike in Sinophobia due to COVID, there was a post by the CEO. It was pretty easy to switch the words around and get the George Floyd post. This was also really performative. Then we had some Sustainable Earth Month thing, and the CEO decided to go vegan for a month. I hope he didn't really hurt himself, coz I did see him eat chickens. Also, performative.
I really hated the hypocrisy and fakeness of the whole thing. I loved the work I did though, I just didn't love the place. The pay and benefits were also great! I think the reasons people work there, are the same reasons that people join terrorist organizations.
I'm curious about DEI training type stuff as an attempt to institutionalize a set of liberal values, that if one of the two political parties in the country outright rejects them, sort of places corporate america in the other party, in a way it doesn't want to acknowledge.
It's very conflict-driven how you get sorted into tribes with DEI and anyone in the OUT group is not allowed to take part in anything the IN-group does. I worked in a Big Four firm for my last job, and they were pretty clear I was not allowed to join the Black Book Club because I was white. I think everyone in my group was going to have a heart attack when I asked if it was ok.
Also, using the term, "ALLY", is also really war-driven too. We need a better word.
I can't wait to get my copy of Hammer! Pre-ordered and looking forward to reading, this is one of the great things about Substack: I get to find wonderful new books and authors!
I agree. Companies are not citizens. They have been endowed by law with commercial “personhood,” but they should not have political rights as if they were actually citizens. They cannot vote and their influence on elections ought to be much more tightly regulated than it is now. It is wrong for corporate interests to “own” office holders, as in practice it appears they do. The idea of “good corporate citizens” is nice but naive.
Thanks Hamilton. Very clear, as usual. The business' nature is to do what they do, profit. It should be up the the government to regulate these bloody bastards, but the government is corrupted and paid by them. They are pay partners. So? Who can help us? Possible answer: us.
Joining effort to limit the money making machine. Stay safe and keep on fighting.
Bravo for every word.
Hamilton, one more comment. I re read your article. Is great, is true, but in addition to spit in the ceo's sandwich, what action do you suggest to fight these bastards? How can we limit their power if not by affecting their interest, i.e. bad PR?
The most meaningful solutions are 1) unionize the companies and 2) governmental regulation.
Yeah, that has worked like a charm everywhere it has been tried.
Unions, governments and corporations are merely groups of people held by a common interest and guided by individual ethics. All three groups are easily corrupted. You cannot get good water from a contaminated well.
If you do not have the expertise, knowledge or time to contribute something meaningful to a discussion I would highly recommend staying quiet in the future. This train of reasoning is unoriginal and highly specious, anyone even superficially familiar with politics or economics, with the exception of cranks, would never entertain your implicit proposal that unions, government and corporations are incapable of producing anything good. Next time you make a criticism, keep in mind it is worthless if you don’t at least point in the direction of a better alternative.
You like more government. I'll stick with the idea that less government is best.
Where did I say I like more government?
You were rather harsh toward my criticism of government so I naturally assumed you are a supporter.
A consequent notion is that all systems (social institutions, collective entities) are machines that operate according to their own programming. Our hope is to pit these machines against one another. Unions and governments are perhaps the only systems that are huge enough to nudge corporations in directions that support human flourishing.
Culture plays a role here as well, and that’s where sharing our best individual ideas might have some kind of impact. We are all involved personally, if infinitesimally, in moving culture along.
Just found this Substack from a link in one of my aggregators (memeorandum.com). Delighted that someone is exploring, with much more expertise, literary skill, and dedication, the topic of my very own Master’s thesis in 1974. There I looked into whether corporations could be moral and concluded that they are essentially amoral. This lifelong interest was inspired by a book from my father’s shelf: John Gall’s “How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail”.
Less of it at the federal level. Less of it at the state level. As little as possible at the local level. Reduce the potential for corruption.
Love this!
The change I’m seeing lately (notably since 2020) is this: “Companies are very good at doing the specific things they do...” Even that’s becoming less and less true.
Feels like companies have been eating their own tails and it’s catching up with them. Cutting costs and alienating labor in the name of profit have resulted in worse and worse products and godawful service. I wonder whether we’ll get fed up enough to stop buying their junk, or we’re just too used to letting them call the shots?
Reading this brings to mind the grey goo and paper clip AI* thought experiments that are darlings of tech bro doom prophets. These ideas are illuminating, but couched in such fantastical terms that it can be difficult to see how applicable they are to already existing systems and technology.
We have already created self perpetuating machines that, left to their own devices, will destroy or reshape the world in pursuit of ultimately pointless goals. I wish the elon musk types would stop worrying about how a hypothetical AI could destroy the whole universe in 1000 years and focus on how existing technology is already well on its way to causing millions of deaths through climate change, not to mention the atrocious quality of life for so many who already are alive.
Sadly they would rather spend their time discussing masturbatory power fantasies where their technology saves/destroys the human race in an existential sci fi epic.
*see instrumental convergence
depressing but spot on...its so frustrating to see how many working class believe the shit fed to them by these companies and their mouthpieces. Fight back, join a union!!!
There was a time, back when Citizens United happened, that I saw published in many places a list of traits/behaviors that are assessed clinically to diagnose someone as a sociopath. Corporations, when viewed as a person, check all the boxes. That is a clear indication of just how much we should trust corporations' use of branding to convince us they are benign or benevolent. Thank you for that very concise list of the tools available to keep them in check. The boundaries we can set using the collective power of laws and unions are critical to putting corporations back on a leash.