This entry is for discussion and voting on the ethics involved in the die hard profit generation at the heart of capitalism today. Should we allow a no holds bared landscape for corporations or should we tighten the reigns?

No boundaries - let corporations make profit in any method Tight boundaries - profits need government mandated management Somewhere in between - corporate greed needs some government oversight but not too much see voting resultssaving...
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User voted Somewhere in between - corporate greed needs some government oversight but not too much.
2 votes
Jun 14, 2015

For those with the no boundaries opinion, what do you think of removing child labor laws, re-instituting slavery, removing the minimum wage, and removing over time pay as these are all things that lower profit margins.

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100
2 votes
Dec 31, 2015

Hey, don't forget about abolishing anti-trust laws. If you really want to go no holds barred, that's a must. The ultimate end of unregulated competition would be to have a monopoly over a given industry, or maybe multiple industries. Once you've eliminated your competitors, there's no sense in letting new upstarts try to enter the market.

Seriously though, I think there needs to be some regulation without going to the extreme of oppressive regulation. I just don't know how to do it. If I did, I'd probably run for Congress. I think what we need to introduce into business (somehow) is honesty and full disclosure. For example, if you're an investment banker and you're selling mortgage-backed securities, and you have to tell your customers, "Hey, we bought these mortgages from banks that were giving out loans like Halloween candy. They didn't check credit ratings or verify the income of the borrowers or anything!" You wouldn't sell a single security. So if you had to be honest, you would make sure that you only bought mortgages from banks who only loaned money to people who were good credit risks, and surprise! the whole banking collapse and subsequent bailout could have been averted. Likewise, if you had to tell people that the reason your soccer balls are so cheap is because the twelve-year-olds who sew them get a beating when they fall behind quota or ask for a raise, you would find that most people would pay a little bit more for a soccer ball made by an adult for a meager wage, but one that they agreed to and would not be beaten for complaining about.

I don't know how we get that kind of honesty and full disclosure in the business world, but that's what we need. Just ask the owners of "clean diesel" products made by Volkswagen.

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User voted Tight boundaries - profits need government mandated management.
0 votes
Feb 5, 2016

Corporations should not exist, at the bare minimum. In my opinion, neither should markets.

No one should make more money than their effort and sacrifice would justify. Productivity and effort should be totally separated as economic concepts.

There should be no market-distorting totalitarian legal structures with limited liabilities and the powers of immortal people. And no person should be allowed to make a dime of profit as long as there are any starving, thirsty or struggling to get shelter. That is not even a radical point: That is as old as John Locke and the Enlightenment as a point.

Further, no one's profits should be able to get to the point where they can trump democracy or the rights of others.

For all these reasons, and more, corporations should be abolished and we should pursue alternative economic institutions.

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