Corporations sometimes do bad things. Let’s get that out of the way before the calls and tweets start flooding in.
They make drugs that save lives. Before 2017, a quarter of a million people died each year as a result of hepatitis C. Now, 95 percent of those can be cured. They provide quality food, clothing and shelter at prices most people can afford. In 1798, T.J. Malthus predicted mass starvation because of population growth. Today, there’s enough food for a world with eight times the current population. Corporations provide transportation, communication and entertainment.
In fact, they’ve become so large, and so good, that we take for granted that corporations can do anything. But they can’t. For example, even massive advertising can’t force consumers to buy what they don’t want. McDonald’s spent millions developing and promoting healthy menu options, but in 2013 then-CEO Don Thompson admitted that baby carrots and salads don’t sell. And in 2010, Campbell Soup Co. reformulated over 60 percent of its condensed soups to reduce their sodium content.
Look at immigration. Nobody leaves home and walks a thousand miles carrying their children—or tries to row across the Mediterranean Sea in a tiny, leaky craft—because they want to. They do it because they’re so desperate that they will do anything to escape the grinding poverty of the countries in which they live. There’s a real-world demonstration going on right now that shows how corporations can give people a reason to stay home.
Ken Frazier, Merck Chairman and CEO, with President Donald Trump, eight months before Frazier's resignation from the president’s manufacturing advisory council as a result of Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty
Can't force people to work!
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