The C.O.R.P.O.R.A.T.I.O.N.S Response

  The documentary was a very big opener. It forces the perception of the normal person to such an extent that we are able to comprehend the profit making business dealt by the large Corporations at the cost of the public knowledge and powerful control over the media. What is even more surprising is that we feel that Corporation is run at large, we think it is very big organization and there has to be a  large number of people managing and a huge system for checks and balances in the corporation, while the Corporation in reality, runs and is supervised by only a handful of people. When the documentary analyzed and personified the word “Corporations”, psychological analysis listed this “person” as a Psychopath. Psychopath, the term used for a personality disorder characterized by an abnormal lack of empathy combined with strongly amoral conduct but masked by an ability to appear outwardly normal. Psychopaths lack a sense of guilt or remorse for any harm they may have caused others, instead rationalizing the behavior, blaming someone else, or denying it outright.  After reading this, Corporation’s as a person started to make more sense. Corporations survive on profit from the market, but how do these corporations compete with each other in such a big market. How do they manage, to pay their workers, maintain the quality and standard of their products and spend so much money in advertising. It is not very simple. Firstly, these large Corporations hunt for cheap labor and the best place to farm on cheap labor is usually in developing countries, where the economy is weak and a majority of population is living under the poverty line. In such places, where the sole earner of the household is working to feed their family of 6 to 8 people or more, these are the poor souls that the Corporations likes to hunt and force to work under unhygienic and unsanitary conditions and exploit them, that is force them to work long hours for a very low wage. For example, the minimum wage in India for a worker is Rs. 45 an hour, while…

 “Mothercare announced the probes after an investigation into pay and conditions in Bangalore found that factory workers are being paid as little as 13p an hour…. Britain and the US including Marks & Spencer and H&M, have confirmed that wages paid to workers are as low as £1.13 for a nine-hour day.”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-479571/The-High-Street-sweatshops-Primark-M-S-factories-India-pay-13p-hour.html#ixzz10MX2O4D8

     These Corporations are called Psychopaths, because they are masked by an ability to appear outwardly normal. In this case, these big Corporations who are exploiting the workers in developing countries by making them work for low wages, use the economy as their shield. They are able to say that they are helping the poor economy by providing more jobs to the poor and the workers are not able to retaliate because in such poverty, there is stiff competition to get jobs and they have big families to support. Also, in the marketing world, competition determines the lifespan of the company. Big companies, who monopolize the market, do not stand alone, they work together in close ties so that they can help each other out in times of tough competition. The best way to stay in the market is to reduce the competition that is to diminish the products of the rival companies. In many cases, when people try to sue large companies, these big companies use the help of the bigger “hands” to soften the issues and take certain damage control. 

     There is a huge difference between the living quality of the consumers and that of the actual producers of the factories. And what me feel worse was the fact that I was a part of this whole system, because I play the role of the consumer, and as the products I buy are to fulfill the consumer wants, and not the consumer needs. But to give this idea a different point of view, the workers in these factories actually do benefit even though they are not given wealth of the company, because they are given a source of income, which puts them in a better position than when they were jobless. We are the consumers, and we are extremely dependent on the goods of these industries, and therefore, we also become a part of the illegal activities that the companies issue. After watching this documentary, I feel that Corporations fulfill the demands of the people, the economy and we are restrained in an economy where we as the people have to understand and take actions to limit the power of these big corporations. This, is a major issue now days, but at personal level, we can at the least be the “smarter” ones, and prevent ourselves from being manipulated by the advertisements, which create the need in the economy, and this gap is filled by the Corporation and its products.