"jim rozen" wrote in message
...

Secondly, unless that corporation is that evil of evils, a straight
out trader in companies and shares, the purpose of a corporation is
_not_ to earn value for its shareholders. The purpose of a corporation
is to carry out its job well.

Wrong wrong wrong. You would never make it in the 'evil
corporate boss' school. That is *exactly* the purported
reason for corporations to exist. To provide ROI. Not
any of the other touchy-feely crap. If they could provide
ROI to the shareholders by running little old ladies through
giant Waring blenders, they would do that. If they could
provide ROI by throwing orphans and widows out in the
streets in winter, they'd do *that*, too. This is the
fundamental tenent of capitalism, which is: if we can
boost the stock price somehow, even for a tiny bit, at
the expense of long term benefit, we *have* to do this,
or somebody else will, and eat our lunch.

That seems to be the way it's going, but that is NOT the reason corporations
are allowed to exist. Corporations are a creation of government -- the
children of the "limited-liability joint stockholders' association" -- which
we inherited from the Brits and modified to suit ourselves.

The reason they're given permission to exist as a legal entity is that they
serve the economic interests of the society in which they incorporate. As
recently as the '70s, the tenet of big business in America was that they had
multiple constituences -- stockholders, employees, customers, and community.
That's the way it was when I worked for a Fortune 500 company, from 1973 to
1981.

Then the hostile takeovers and the LBO's started, and the only way for
corporations to protect themselves was a two-pronged defense: get real nasty
and dirty, and turn all of their attention toward quarterly earnings and
growth.

But remember where it all came from. Corporations exist because they provide
an economic benefit to the society as a whole. They have no "rights," only
priviledges and permissions. It would be good to remind ourselves of this.

--
Ed Huntress
(remove "3" from email address for email reply)