Author: John Cobb
Date: September 5, 2011
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Will Corporations Serve—or Exploit—the Human Family?

 
August 2011 (orig­i­nal, 2003) by John B. Cobb Jr. and Pro­gres­sive Chris­tians Uniting
 
This arti­cle is an abridged ver­sion of the essay that appears in the book by the Reflec­tion Com­mit­tee of Pro­gres­sive Chris­tians Unit­ing, Pro­gres­sive Chris­tians Speak: A Dif­fer­ent Voice on Faith and Pol­i­tics, ed. John B. Cobb Jr. [Louisville: West­min­ster John Knox Press, 2003], 165–195, avail­able from www.TheThoughtfulChristian.com. It is repub­lished here with per­mis­sion from the edi­tor, the author­ing com­mit­tee, and West­min­ster John Knox Press.

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James Hin­ton was an effec­tive CEO of a medium-sized pub­lic cor­po­ra­tion spe­cial­iz­ing in kitchen equip­ment. He was also a com­mit­ted Chris­t­ian, and he tried to bring his faith to bear in the way he ran the com­pany. As a result of his fair­ness and real con­cern for those who worked for him, the com­pany had high morale and strong worker loy­alty. Sup­pli­ers and retail­ers were glad to do busi­ness with it. Because he insisted that wher­ever his fac­to­ries were located, man­age­ment would be good cit­i­zens and envi­ron­men­tally respon­si­ble, the pub­lic rela­tions of the com­pany were excel­lent. He had also estab­lished a good record of profitability.

Nev­er­the­less, he was under pres­sure from his stock­hold­ers. Com­peti­tors had increased their prof­its faster than he had. Some of his major stock­hold­ers were press­ing him to close union­ized fac­to­ries in the United States and move pro­duc­tion to Mex­ico. They also urged that new tech­nol­ogy jus­ti­fied reduc­ing mid­dle man­age­ment posi­tions. Tak­ing such steps would increase prof­its and raise the price of the stock.

Hin­ton had bent to the new real­i­ties. He had per­suaded unions to mod­er­ate their demands because of the dan­ger that fac­to­ries would be closed if costs rose fur­ther. He had stopped replac­ing mid­dle man­age­ment who retired. But he resisted clos­ing fac­to­ries on which whole com­mu­ni­ties depended and lay­ing off man­agers who had worked faith­fully for the com­pany for years. The human costs were sim­ply too high.

Now, he knew, there was a good chance that he would be replaced. To most of his stock­hold­ers, higher prof­its and stock prices were more impor­tant than what hap­pened to employ­ees. Well, he decided, he would stand his ground and be voted out, if that was his des­tiny, with his prin­ci­ples intact. Sadly, he reflected, his good con­science would not help his employees.

A Pro­found Ten­sion
The open­ing story illus­trates a pro­found ten­sion. Cor­po­rate lead­er­ship con­sists of all kinds of peo­ple. Many of them are per­sons of con­science con­cerned for the good of human­ity and the future of the earth. But the present global cor­po­rate sys­tem exerts pres­sures of a dif­fer­ent sort. Many cor­po­ra­tions sub­mit to these pres­sures and com­mit them­selves to lit­tle else than the bot­tom line. A few resist in var­i­ous ways. The behav­ior of cor­po­ra­tions, and the sys­tem that presses them in a neg­a­tive direc­tion, play a large role in deter­min­ing the future of humanity.

Indeed, cor­po­ra­tions have, arguably, become the most impor­tant insti­tu­tions in the world.  Of the 100 largest economies in the world, half are nations, and half are cor­po­ra­tions. Their role in the United States is enor­mous. Incor­po­rated busi­nesses account for well over two-thirds of the U.S. economy’s pri­vately pro­duced income. In man­u­fac­tur­ing, trans­porta­tion, pub­lic util­i­ties and finance, cor­po­ra­tions do almost all of the nation’s busi­ness. In trade and con­struc­tion they do about half the total business.

Cor­po­ra­tions exer­cise vast influ­ence on pub­lic pol­icy. While regard­ing reg­u­la­tory bod­ies with sus­pi­cion, cor­po­ra­tions sup­port gov­ern­ment pol­icy and inter­ven­tion con­so­nant with their own inter­ests. Cor­po­ra­tions wield great polit­i­cal power through cam­paign dona­tions and the pro­vi­sion of lob­by­ists and experts who assist under­staffed leg­is­la­tors in draft­ing bills and pro­vid­ing analy­sis. The proverb fits: “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” Few of us—and few pub­lic inter­est organizations—can afford com­pa­ra­ble resources to rep­re­sent our interests.

Through their con­trol of the media, cor­po­ra­tions largely shape our knowl­edge of, and opin­ions about, what is going on in the world. Tens of mil­lions of peo­ple work for them and have their lives pro­foundly shaped by the inter­nal poli­cies of cor­po­ra­tions. Most mid­dle class Amer­i­cans have invest­ments in cor­po­ra­tions, and we col­lec­tively put pres­sure on these cor­po­ra­tions to max­i­mize prof­its and growth even at the cost of other val­ues. It is past time for Chris­tians to study and appraise these insti­tu­tions, both their role in the larger soci­ety and their effect on the lives of those who work in them.

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