Art, corporations are a double-edged sword. I agree with you that corporations are valuable to our society. Yet it is very important to remember that their only goal is profit. It is because of this goal that corporations find the most cost efficient routes of production thus supplying the consumers with essentials at the lowest possible price. Unfortunately in their strive for profit and efficiency they also tend to cut corners. It is at this point that they become a danger to society.
Government legislation is necessary to keep corporations from crossing the line and becoming a danger to society. I am aware that this line is very thin. Push corporations back too far and their profit margins collapse and they go out of business. Give them too much slack and they begin to utilize tactics that impact on human lives, environment and the economy.
With their only and only goal of profit it is only natural that corporation strive to control that which controls them – the government. This is to be expected. Unfortunately at the moment I feel that the scale has tipped in the corporate world’s favor. Which is dangerous for the well being of the consumer, the preservation of the environment and most importantly the health of our economy.
To put the economical impact into perspective here is a snipet form this article:
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1104-04.htm
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Using conservative numbers issued by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for instance, criminologist Jeffrey Reiman, a professor at American University, estimated that the total cost of white-collar crime in 1997 was $338 billion. The actual cost is probably much greater. For instance, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, estimates that health-care fraud alone costs up to $100 billion each year. Another estimate suggests that the annual cost of antitrust or trade violations is at least $250 billion. By comparison, the FBI estimated that in 2002, the nation's total loss from robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson was almost $18 billion. That's less than a third of the estimated $60 billion Enron alone cost investors, pensioners and employees.
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