more on Hi-tech firms censured over China

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Robert Alberti <alberti () sanction net>
Date: December 20, 2005 8:53:50 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Hi-tech firms censured over China
Reply-To: alberti () sanction net

On Tue, 2005-12-20 at 19:33 -0500, David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Thomas Leavitt <thomas () thomasleavitt org>

>   Corporations have no morals. This is a fundamental principle. Their
> sole legal and moral obligation is to produce the highest possible
> return on investment to their shareholders

At least, that's the idea.  In practice, they tend to be run to produce
the highest possible return for CERTAIN shareholders - namely the
boardmembers and senior officers.  Corruption and kleptocracy frequently
override capitalism.

Some limitations on what looks otherwise like the overwhelming success
of capitalism are the ethical deficiencies Mr. Leavitt points out, and
more broadly, the fact that capitalism exploits and uses up natural
resources and human resources.  And capitalism seeks at all times to
reduce costs by shirking all responsibilities for consequences, from
taxes to pensions to environmental remediation.  In other words
capitalism is not neutral to social welfare, it is caustic to social
welfare.

> From global warming to outsourcing to offshore corporations, unchecked
capitalism is a highly efficient short-term means of consuming
resources, generating waste, and enriching a very tiny group of people.

Over the past century simple capitalism has fallen behind society's
increasingly sophisticated view of the world as an interconnected web of
various forces, natural and human-made. If capitalism fails to evolve to
take into account the long term ramifications of its excesses and
impact, our entire planetary economy and way of life could suffer badly,
or even collapse.

And that, I daresay, would not be counted among capitalism's shining
achievements.

--
Robert Alberti <alberti () sanction net>
Sanction, Inc.



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