Tonkel+The+Corporation

1. The Corporation, directed by Mark Achbar and Jen Abbott 2. This film is all about the evils of corporations and how they exploit their power over our governments and people, as well as their limited liability for profits instead of for the overall good of society. 3. There are many sustainability problems that seem to go hand in hand with this creation of corporations. First of which is the exploitation of resources without regard for external effects to people or planet. This is due to the corporations design to only care about maximizing profit, because of this the negative effects of doing business are externalized pushing losses onto those that don’t have the power to fight back. Economically and socially the total effect is accounted for somewhere it just doesn’t end up on the accounting books of those directly responsible. This really ties into the largest issue of sustainability in the United States, our ability to place the good of our economy above the good of our society. This creates massive gaps in standards of living and overall quality of life. The film also touches on other issues such as pollution and energy consumption and even though both of these fall under externalities, they are sustainable problem in and of themselves that need to be addressed. Lastly, I think the film slightly touches on the fact that because all of our technological research and advancements are developed and controlled by corporations that in order to have the funds to solve many of our environmental problems we have to look to these corporate powers to develop solutions, which they again make profits off of. A recent commercial for Exxon Mobil has shown their new developments in algae fuel that has the ability to absorb carbon dioxide. If this technology becomes big, Exxon will make huge profits off of the huge problem they made money creating. 4. I really enjoyed the psycho-analysis of a corporation as did many others I’m sure. It was very compelling because it shows just how out of line corporations are with society. It ties in a corporation’s legal rights as a person to the fact that if it was indeed a real person that he or she would most likely be shunned from society or imprisoned. It was so compelling to me because it is very scary to think that the most powerful organizations, beings, or creations in our modern world have no regard for the health or safety of the people that share this earth with them. I would also have to say that this was a close tie with the interview of the economist who advocated the existence and continuation of corporations. It was amazing to see how certain people can believe that these things are more helpful than harmful to society. It’s almost as if the man had been brainwashed into believing the things he did. 5. What I found completely unconvincing about the film was really not so much about any direction the director took with the film, but over the history of corporations. The view the film took was that at one point corporations were meant to help society, which may have been true, however the idea of limited liability of the owners in my mind doesn’t have any way of benefiting society. If someone truly had a great idea and wanted to create a business around that idea they should be 100% responsible for the actions of what they created. 6. After watching this film I want to find out more about our legal systems ability to dissolve a corporate charter. The film mentioned one instance in California where the courts acknowledge that they had the power to split up a corporation that has done wrong and is no longer a benefit to society. I am very curious to know when this power was put into place. Was this added with the creation of our government’s support of corporate charters? Or was it put into place after people started to become skeptical of them? I also want to know if there have been any more instances where this law has been attempted to be used. Adding to that I want to know why the California court bothered to state the power that they had and yet still decided that the corporation was not doing harm to anyone? 7. I think this film best addresses our politicians and judiciaries. The film has the ability to show people the downfalls of our current system of economics and business and the huge necessity for regulation in order to protect the American people. Really the only thing consumers can do is try not to support any of these corporations that have been known to purposefully ignore problems in exchange for profit. However, at the moment the largest corporations own just about everything and that’s why I think our political leaders need to watch this film and take action accordingly. 8. I think the best point of action suggested by the film is to dissolve these large corporations into smaller parts. No one company should have any reason to be both in the computer manufacturing segment and in the fast food industry, they just don’t fit together. All it does is give more money to the same people at the top. In biology we talk about diversity in ecosystems, the same should be true for our economic systems. Other than that we need to have further regulation on what these companies do and much harsher fines so that it is never economically viable to pollute or destroy the environment. So much of the time, corporations take fines because it is less costly than doing what is right. 9. I think this film had incredible educational value. It had a few members that advocate the opposite of the films message but just enough to show you what type of people believe in corporations. It provided many great examples from many different directions. The best improvement that could be made in order to make the film more accessible to the average person would be to cut down the running time just a little so that it isn’t so difficult to sit through the whole film.