Re: <nettime> draft article on WTO

["scotartt" <scot@systemx.autonomous.org>]

> corporations will simply never behave like humans, in
> the interests of humankind, or on the basis of human
> values.  from their very inception, they are created
> with the specific goal of defying/manipulating these
> values for profit.

Just a point of order here David. Corporations are created with the
specific goal of "profit" -- its illegal to run a public company for any
other (primary) motive. Human values don't enter into the equation. They
are just a set of factors that affect profitability. So if defying these
values (I have to point out, legally defying, because corps must obey the
relevant laws as much as we as indivisuals do) produces better profit .. so
be it, the corporations act that way.

What 'leftists', or governments, or policymakers, or lawmakers, in fact all
of the above, have to see is that the way you make a corporation pay
attention to these 'human values' is to make being ATTENTIVE (or
conversely, inattentive) of them radically affect the 'bottom line' (and of
course, at this point, the difficult argument begins as to which ones of
the human values you want to enforce). I don't mean consumer boycotts,
because I'm not so optimistic about the mass consciousness required. I mean
by LAWS. (and not John Laws either you fellow aussies).

Just as I believe the way to stop pollution, for example, is to make
corporations pay for it, which will lead them to place a monetary value
upon it and thus, factor it into their balance sheets, will over the long
term, reduce pollution because it will finally be seen as a *cost* in the
strictly corporate accounting sense -- the only way to really make a corp
pay attention to something.

regs
scot.

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