The New Corporation

Bakan's original book “The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power” (2003) helped me start down the path in 2019. So when I saw he had a sequel out, I was pretty stoked. My last book's eye-rolling final chapters about moving toward “ethical capitalism” was succeeded by someone trying to personally convince me that “ethical capitalism” is cool and good and totally not a con. Thus, this book immediately shot up to first in my to-read list and provided much more succinct retorts than I could muster.

The gist is short and simple: Corporations (even B-Corps) are capable of being mildly less evil, but the core of the system is still profit maximization above all else. Their efforts to be less exploitative will inevitably run into the profit motive, making substantive changes intrinsically impossible.

Corporations propagandize their meager good actions (real or often fabricated) to lobby for further deregulations, privatization, destruction of labor movements, and a reputation boost. This ultimately services their bottom line.

There is no such thing as “ethical capitalism.” It is an oxymoron. When the ultimate goal is profit maximization, every seemingly good action is done to serve that goal, or at least to not harm it. There is no morality, no altruism, only selfishness and greed with a shiny new veneer. No amount of regulations or ‘corporate social responsibility' programs will ever result in “ethical capitalism.” It is rotten to the core.

The solution is Democracy. Direct & electoral, workplace & municipal, liberation from the legal corruption of the US corporatocracy. The solution is direct action, protest, and mutual aid instead of charity. The solution is....

I would recommend both these books to anyone and everyone.