Sometimes You Wake Up a Realist

Let’s review a few recent and older news items. 1. Apple caves to the Chinese government on selling an app that allows people in Hong Kong to communicate about where to meet and protest away from police. 2. The NBA caves to the Chinese government on support of the Hong Kong protestors. 3. Ford and General Motors caved to Hitler and it German operations built the very tanks that were used to kill American soldiers. A couple of references follow.

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/11/maybe-woke-nbas-hypocrisy-china-has-awakened-us-consumers-about-their-own/, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm.)

I make this third point so we realize that US Corporations didn’t suddenly lose their moral spine. They never had it. And there is a reason for this. A corporation isn’t a moral person. Instead it is a collection of interests, all focused on making money. If you try to mediate between these interests by introducing moral standards the result is chaos. So the basic value of the corporation becomes the one value all shareholders agree on; the value of making a profit. That’s why the shareholders invested. Anything else confuses the purpose of a corporation with the purpose of a church, an NGO, a non-profit charity, or a government. Another reference and comments.

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/19/lobbying-group-powerful-ceos-is-rethinking-how-it-defines-corporations-purpose/, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/20/dont-trust-ceos-who-say-they-dont-care-about-shareholder-value-anymore/, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/08/20/ceos-say-shareholders-wont-be-no-anymore-turns-out-they-already-werent/)

Of course this doesn’t mean that corporations are lawless. They obey the law because, and only because, there are serious repercussions to the bottom line if they fail to do so. Nor does it mean they abandon the social good. So long as it suits their public image and thus enhances the bottom line they will set up all kinds of initiatives to be environmentally conscious, supportive of equality and diversity and so on. The CEO’s discussed above haven’t done anything other than recognize that by appearing to put shareholder value behind morality they protect themselves and their corporations from bad press, attract support, and thus increase shareholder value. They won’t do it because its the right thing to do. They’ll do it because a failure to do so costs them, or doing it increases shareholder value.  

Does this mean that corporate leaders have no conscience? Of course not. Individually they may be highly moral, support great causes, and blush with shame at what their corporations do. But remember they weren’t hired to make independent moral judgments and impose them on the corporation. They were hired to increase shareholder value. In this respect they are like politicians who must put aside their personal morality to serve the moral standards of those who elected them. 

And if we want corporate morality it is precisely to politics that we must turn. 

Because corporations are run semi-democratically - each share gets a vote - then if a majority of shareholders wish for the corporation to adopt a moral stance they can push for it. But I wouldn’t hold my breath in this system. Most shares in most corporations are owned by institutions legally responsible to maximize profits. They won’t be voting for corporate morality. 

So we must turn to the politicians who make the law. While corporations are incapable of morality, they are capable of obeying the law. Thus it is politicians who must insure that the laws they pass keep corporations moral. Do the people of the United States believe pollution is immoral? Then pass laws to make it illegal. Do the people believe that freedom of speech is a moral good our nation is obliged to protect? Then pass laws that make it illegal to do business with those who attack it. 

Do our politicians turn out to be moral failures who cannot pass the laws that make ours a moral nation? Then we can vote them out and vote in new ones. Voting is always ethical. 

Complaining about a lack of corporate morality is like complaining about a lack of tiger vegetarianism. Better to pass laws to protect those most vulnerable to attack and accept for either one to exist some blood will be shed. It's been that way since God shed blood to cloth the first humans, and to over-cloth their children with eternal life.