Corporate Ethics

OK. I think thats enough talking about God for one week.

So tonight we're moving on to something a little bland. Thats right, you guessed it, corporate ethics. Now what do we mean by corporate ethics? Well, I don't actually know, so we're just gonna wing this one.

Theres a bunch of people going around arguing that corporations should be socially responsible. That is, they shouldn't take advantage of people, or the world in general. They should also give back to the community. For example, some guy at work managed to get a grant to give to his kid's kindergarden. All he had to do was apply, apparently. I thought it was kind of silly because only organisations nominated by employees could possibly get grants. In a way, its limiting the types and number of organisations which could obtain such benefits. What happens to the others?

What might be a better idea is to reduce the cost of their products to their customers, so that they can use the money they've saved to buy their own treehouse and donate it to the kindergarden. Better yet, they can spend it on booze.

Maybe it doesn't count because its a mega organisation which Australians seem to love to hate. I don't think I should say which one it is explicitly in case some suits rock up at my door threatening to disconnect my grandfather's cable tv. He lives on that thing.

Anyhoo. I'm here to argue that corporations shouldn't really need to do things like that. Companies (at least in Australia), are treated as separate legal entities from the people who own and work in them. One great thing about this is that if the company goes backrupt, the shareholders get away scot free. Unless of course you get caught. This is always fun when you pay youself heaps from your own company and then it goes kaput'. Then you get investigated and people in suits start raiding your pacific island and stealing your holiday boats :( .

Companies are created to simplify things, and make money. If you owned a company, it would probably be to make money. As a corporate entity, they have fixed levels of income tax (currently at 30%), which is a lot less than the current top income tax rate. They also let a bunch of people own it, which is different from a person. A person is still a legal entity but you can't own one. At least not in this country.

So why do people argue that corporations should be socially responsible? I don't know really. I guess its because people want to get over their own stupidity and want someone to blame when they did a big boo boo. Theres numerous examples of such things, heres two off the top of my head:

• I heard of this thing where this large bank was approving car loans to aboriginals at the top of Queenland. They were all living on centerlink benefits, so it ended up with people having something like $20 to live off every week after they made their loan repayments. I don't see this as socially irresponsible, I think its stupid. Not only are the people borrowing money a bit silly in biting off more than they can chew, the money lender is also kinda stupid. Which bank would lend people money if they know they can't pay it back? Thats right, the Commonwealth Bank. This is not to say that this is the only bank that does this. Banks lend money to dole bludgers all the time. Sittin on their arse and using their credit cards until they run out of limit, then go get another credit card. So I'm stereotyping, whatever...we'll get to that another day.


• Everyone knows about those people who have ridiculously high phone or internet bills. There was this whole saga how some poor sod who had a bill in the thousands of dollars. So what they did was go on telly, tell their sob story, and then somehow managed to get most of the bill written off. People should learn what they're getting themselves into. Sure, if you're new to the area, find out about it, consider some alternatives, then make your choice. Don't go blindly to the biggest thing you find and embrace it like Winni the Pooh Bear, however huggable it may be.
  

Ok I've had enough. Corporate Ethics is a load of crock. People aren't going to buy your products because you sponsor charity events or cancer curing organisations. Or maybe I'm just an evil capitalist >:D