CORPORATIONS

1.       Should corporations be entitled to the same legal rights as individuals? Where the line should be drawn?

The corporation should not be entitled to the same legal rights as individuals because they need a special treatment in order to grow and with the proper tools lead the world economy in the countries. Is important to understand that even so the corporations seek for their  own well being and their shareholders that is only the natural course of the events in the capitalism and is pointless to fight it, more intelligent than engaging a difficult conflict that can lead to no good outcomes is to realize that the growth of corporations can be used to benefit the people in general if the governments aims their political efforts to establish proper laws and taxing policies that can balance the private interest of a corporation with  the general interest. So in a developing country like Colombia high restrictions to foreign direct investment would devastate the aspirations to be competitive in the global scenario and would lead the country to increase poverty and inequality, for this reason is not the corporation’s the ones that should be analyzed, the governments are the ones that should be examined and ask for controls and policies that help the people because in a our system (capitalism) the ones that are designed to take care of the people in general are the governments and not the corporations, their private status and their profit spirit must be respected but controlled by each government. The line should be drown not in the way that corporations conceive their economic life (self profits) in the taxing and health policies that the governments design in order to control them.

2.       How can we ensure corporations are held accountable for their action?

We can ensure that by pressing the governments to establish a set of laws and rules that controls the corporations. Create rules regarding the environment, the use of harmful elements, the revenues and especially the labor conditions within the corporation. As I said before is the responsibility of the governments to ensure the well being of the population because the corporations owe loyalty only to its shareholders.

 3.     Should individuals bear any responsibility for the actions in a corporation? If so, to what degree?

The individuals that lead the corporations should share complete responsibility for their actions only if those actions affects the wellbeing of another human being, if the action affects other corporation or institution the way of treat the person should differ because that behavior would be covered by the “free market” philosophy that rules our system.

4.       What are the benefits of the corporate form? Could an alternative model offer these as well?

The benefit of the corporate form is the fact that a lot of corporations create a lot of competitiveness in the sector and that encourages development and investigation, in other words the corporate core value of financial surviving can lead to human development and improvement of the quality of the life. I think that the cluster model that is a group of small firms from similar industries that team up and act as one body. Creating a business cluster enables firms to enjoy economies of scale usually only available to bigger competitors. Marketing costs can be shared and goods can be bought more cheaply. There are also networking advantages, which small firms can share experiences and discuss business strategies.

http://www.bnet.com/topics/business+cluster

A little example of a government lack of control over corporations