Do corporations have any moral responsibility?

Oh dear got your panties all

...

...

...

...

...






...

...

etc.

And THAT'S the problem, Fishin. Individuals working within corporations are able to get away with actions proscribed for individuals in extra-corporation roles. In latin america, corporations are referred to as "anonymous societies" (I think we've observed this already). That term explicitly acknowledges the legal strategy of corporations to enable individuals to get around the law, to avoid their responsibilities as legal/moral agents.

fishin:

Originally, corporations were created for production purposes with the limited liability to encourage risk taking. It was a temporary creature but over time it gained the same rights as a person but unlike a person with responsibilities corporations have escaped this responsibility as you so clearly put it. If you have group of people with no responsibility they will engage in anti-social behavior and criminal activities. Look at the cigarette manufacturers participating in smuggling cigarettes to Native Reserves to escape taxes; oil companies engaging in disinformation regarding global warming; pharmaceutical companies in trying extend the patent of drugs beyond the 17 years and introducing inadequately tested drugs and medicine. Then there are the Enrons, Worldcoms, Tyco execs and Hollingers' Conrad Black looting investors; etc.



I think you have both inferred something in my post that wasn't my intended point.

I fully understand what companies are and how people use them to avoid responsibilities. The point is that it is the PEOPLE that work within those corporations that are evading moral and ethical responsibilities. You can't lay the blame off on pieces of paper.

Quote:

If corporations are given the same rights as a person then they should face the same music as a human criminal would.

Do you suggest we take the articles of incorporation and lock it in a prison cell for 10-20 years? Why is that a better choice than holding the people within those coprporations (who make the decisions) responsible?

Quote:

Oh dear got your panties all

...

...

...

...

...






...

...

etc.

on the contrary, kuvasz, i don't think i've ever been more dreadfully bored than i've become with this thread- thank you.

fishin:

You are quite behind the times. Corporations can hold patents and copyright.
Why should a piece of paper be given patents or copyright?

coberst wrote:

Do US corporations have any moral responsibility to the citizens of the US?

Do US corporations have any moral responsibility to the people living on this planet?

These are both silly questions, IMO and the answers provided thusfar seem to all miss a critial point.

Whether you want to look at ethics or morals - corporations don't thave them. In fact, it isn't possible for them to have them. A corporation is a fictional "entity" created for legal purposes. It can't think, feel, reason or make decisons.

PEOPLE form and run corportions and do the thinking, feeling, reasoning and decision making.