Unit V

When Corporations Rule the World

AgendaSummaryEthical IssuesCritique Personal PerspectivePossible ImprovementReferences

SummaryPart 1: Cowboy in a Spaceship

-Outlines of the argument

-He claims that economic“growth has done nothing to reduce the proportion of the population who live in absolute poverty;”

Summary

Part 2: Contest for Sovereignty

-Corporations are becoming dangerously powerful with no accountability

-Privatization, deregulation and free trade are contributors to globalization

SummaryPart 3: Corporate Colonialism

- Multinational companies are the main drivers of globalization and are not focused on human interests

- “The greater the political power of corporations and those aligned with them, the less the political power of the people and the less meaningful democracy becomes.”

SummaryPart 4: A Rogue Financial System

-Money has become delinked from value and has become almost a pure abstraction.

- “The world’s corporate giants are creating a system of managed competition by which they actively limit competition among themselves while encouraging intensive competition among the smaller firms that make up their periphery.”

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SummaryPart 5: No Place for People

-In the global free market, social responsibility is not valued. In order to attract investment, nations and communities compete to lower wages and living standards.

- “It directly creates a world in which social bonds are destroyed and people and human values have no place.”

SummaryPart 6: Reclaiming Our Power

-Korten’s solution for globalization

-“The appropriate organizational form for the ecological era is likely to be a multi-level system of nested economies with the household as the basic economic unit…… Embodying the principle of intrinsic responsibility, each level would seek to function, to the extent that it is reasonably able, as an integrated, self-reliant, self-managing political, economic, and ecological community.”

SummaryMain Points:Anti-globalization: Globalization has

harmful effects on politics, society, and the environment and giant international companies have become dangerously powerful.

The gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow

Ethical Issues-1

Economic Systems and JusticeKorten uses an End-State approach to

evaluate the current capitalist system and deems it immoral

Distributive Justice: The capitalist system in the states has an uneven dispersion of wealth

Ethical Issues-2

Corporate social responsibilityGlobal corporations exploit workers in

developing countriesleads to countries losing their

sovereignty Global corporations tend to lose their

focus on environmental sustainability

Critique• Capitalism vs. Socialism: Korten has some

good basic ideas for dispersion of wealth but his argument is unrealistic• Example: Canadian Model, ICBC and BC Hydro

• Without globalization prices would be higher and society would be worse off

• Globalization helps promote political allegiances through trade agreements

• Globalization leads to increase in technological advancements and sharing of resources

Book Evaluation

Passion for the topic

Polarizing; people either strongly agree or disagree

“Bible of anti-globalization”

Raises ethical questions about our current global capitalist system

Personal Perspective

Globalization has some negative ethical qualities but it is essential to growth in technology and stability in our economy

Government regulations could be put in place to put an emphasis on ethical issues for multinational global corporations

Possible Improvements

Korten could consider changes in the current capitalist system that are not so radicalCould implement changes such as strict

environmental regulations and fair workers’ compensation

Korten seems to overlook the fact that using a Utilitarian approach the benefits of Globalization are greater than the costs

Referenceshttp://nooventures.edublogs.org/2007-11-04-

when-corporations-rule-the-world-by-david-korten/

http://livingeconomiesforum.org/http://www.mapcruzin.com/rev_corp_rule.htmhttp://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/book_review/

when_corporations_rule_the_world_korten.htmlhttp://deoxy.org/korten_assault.htm “When Corporations Rule the World” by David

Korten Business Ethics by Richard T. DeGeorge

Thank you!