The Influence of Corporations in the Modern Society - Essay Example

? The Corporation Introduction The purpose of the constitution is to safeguard the rights of all citizens of the United States irrespective of their backgrounds or positions in the community. It contains rights and freedoms that individuals are entitled to enjoy by birth right, such as freedom from slavery, freedom of speech and so on (Bakan, 2012). There is no person with authority to deny another person of these rights and liberties envisaged in the body or governing principles. Corporations are legally established and recognized as separate bodies and enjoy the privileges and liberty of ordinary human beings (Macfarlane, 2002). For example, they have right to acquire wealth, they can take legal action against another person and they can also be prosecuted in the court for their misconduct. Corporations in the United States and the rest of the nations are gaining huge influence over normal persons and as a result, they often abuse the rights of the individuals in the society (Bakan, 2012). This is because they are less conscious about the needs of the people since their endeavor is to achieve their goals of amassing affluence irrespective of the impact of their actions in the community. Nature of Corporation’s Institutions According to Bakan (2012) corporations are basically established to with a motive of generating wealth or their shareholders. Unlike ordinary persons, corporations lack conscious for the human feelings hence will do anything in order to acquire more wealth. They subject human beings into torture due to their activities without minding about their actions (Banerjee, http://www.google.co.ke/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Subhabrata+Bobby+Banerjee%222009). Although normal human being would not subject their fellow human beings into immense sufferings, corporations have no concern for human life. Their focus is to engage in activities that will generate wealth for the investors. In the modern society, corporations are enjoying extreme autonomy which a normal person cannot enjoy. This is because corporations are made up of different individuals and since their focus is on the returns they will make, they have a lot of wealth which they use to defend their positions against all evils they commit (Macfarlane, 2002). This prevents individuals from enjoying their liberty granted by the constitution. Consequences of Corporations Institutions in the Society The law of the nation requires individuals to enjoy liberty without partiality by any one. However, corporations are taking advantage of the needy people in the society and convert them into a supply of affordable labour (Macfarlane, 2002). They pay them low wages just or maintenance of their lives. They want to law taxes from their income. Corporations aim at amassing immense wealth from the public while offering negligence assistance to the society. For example, they pay their workers very low wages, abuse children, paying low taxes by failing to declare their entire gains from their trading activities (Bakan, 2012). The corporations are trying to acquire maximum wealth from the nation while they want to offer little in return. The negative impacts of the corporations’ activities are affecting people who do not gain anything from the corporation’s (Bakan, 2012). For example, damping of the wastes materials and emissions due to their production activities has detrimental effects of the environment. The emissions of poisonous substances are adversely affecting human beings, aquatic life and vegetation. They are the major causes of cancer disease which is continuing to take away the lives of many people. Corporations such as Monsanto and Syngenta among others use chemicals which have detrimental effects on the surroundings and on human beings. Some corporations spray their workers with chemicals in order to evade spread of diseases by the workers. These are hindrance to the freedoms of the individuals and have negative impact in the society. Furthermore, huge corporations fail to disclose vital information regarding the chemicals and other production processes they use (Werther & Chandler, 2006). When prosecuted, they rarely fall guilty because they have wealth and can afford the best lawyers to represent them in the court hence their rarely lose the case. The constitution allows citizens of nation to move freely within their states. The states premises are open to the public all the time and the public have an access to whatever information or any other help they may be in need of from the government offices (Bakan, 2012). As corporations gain momentum in the society, individuals’ liberty to move from on e place to another within their nation is becoming more limited. This is because private businesses do not allow people to enter their premises without permission (Macfarlane, 2002). They have absolute authority to decide who gains access to their premises and who doesn’t have any authority to gain access to their premises. Businesses use rigorous campaign to promote their sales. However, they rarely disclose the harmful impacts of their products to the consumers (Brown, Lauder & Halsey, 2001). The marketers mainly target specific category of potential buyers and convince them to buy the products even if they were not interested in buying them. Marketers sometimes focus on children who have to insist for the products until their parents surrender and buy them those products for their children (Werther & Chandler, 2006). Even the authority responsible for implementing the state rules aiming to protect the citizens are either part of the corporations or influence corporations not to execute those rules. Finally, corporations are engaging all possible means to cut down the cost of operations in order to increase their profitability. Some of the means they use are oppressive to the citizens are not acceptable in the society (Bakan, 2012). For example, most of them are embarking of mechanization of their production processes in order t cut down the cost of running their businesses. They end up retrenching workers without caring of what will be their fate if rendered jobless (Brown, Lauder & Halsey, 2001). The other issue is unnecessary hiking of prices of their products. This is because corporations have acquired patent rights hence there is chances for stiff competition from the rivals. Conclusion Corporations have greater influence in the modern society and are limiting the liberty of individuals and their legal benefits (Bakan, 2012). They are focusing on wealth acquisition and have no sympathy for the citizens. They are subjecting their workers to poor working conditions and causing other effects which are detrimental in the society. Therefore, the survival of the citizens is strongly determined by the activities of the individual corporations. This s because the corporations are gaining more control over the government rules. References Bakan, J. (2012). The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y888wVY5hzw Banerjee, S. B. (2009). Corporate Social Responsibility: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Edward Elgar Publishing, USA. Brown P., Lauder, H. & Halsey A. H. (2001). Capitalism and Social Progress: The Future of Society in a Global Economy, Palgrave, New York. Macfarlane, A. (2002). The Making of the Modern World: Visions from the West and East, Palgrave, New York Werther, W. & Chandler, D. (2006). Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders in a Global Environment, SAGE, Read More