They will stop at nothing, will they…
Unilever’s Wokey Road Ice Cream
1 Like
Every corporate brand must repeatedly tell me that racism is bad, for otherwise I will of course assume they think that racism is good.
1 Like
At a “regular” corporation, if shareholders can prove that the management has spent more money on things designed to make the corporation look good than is reflected in the share price, then they have wasted money and acted irresponsibly. The number one goal of a corporation is to make money. There is no number two goal, regardless of what their mission statement says.
Not that this will ever happen, but there are “B” corporations that are chartered to operate with a goal to address specific issues that supersede or at a minimum are co-equal with maintaining profitability. All it would take is for congress to stop re-chartering regular corporations and require them to become “B” corporations. Management could then work with shareholders to decide what social issues the corporation is best suited to address.
All it takes is political will. Sadly, the regular corporations (“people”) that donate billions to political campaigns have a bigger say than the rest of us. Citizens United was the death blow to any real change in this country.
1 Like
Their “second point” is a call for reparations without using that word. All well and good, but just to advocate it is to advocate it using Somebody Else’s Money. Now, if Ben and Jerry’s, and their parent corporation, were to advocate for a reparations program with a dedicated funding source of, say, a 5% corporate tax increase, I’d take it pretty seriously.
1 Like
Ben and Jerry would be into it - they’ve called for increased taxes on those like themselves, but I don’t know if Unilever would go for it…
3 Likes
Yet a surprising* number of corporate brands are too chickenshit to call out actual, specific acts racism when they happen, let alone acknowledge the white supremacist nature of America’s police forces.
*Not surprising
5 Likes
That’s a wasted opportunity. Companies revenue generators, but are also groups of people who can align and direct resources for good. Many companies are matching employee donations to black causes. Our company just donated $1M to multiple black organizations specifically because the employees got together and demanded it. None of this would have happened if the companies just kept their mouths shut. None of us have $1M, but our company does.
A company is a tool. It can be used as a heartless tool of profit, or as a tool of social change that also makes some money.
3 Likes
I struggle with this notion, as I see the value in building large scale institutions that can carry on complex human endeavors in a way that individuals have a hard time doing. At the same time, the roots of corporate structure are tainted from the beginning, beginning as a way for people to extract resources in the colonies, enslaved humans from the west coast of Africa, and then produce those goods back in the metropole by newly proletarianized labor, who then are transformed into modern consumers. The modern corporation has been a source of great human misery, in other words.
Can we use those tools to transform the world for the better? I don’t know if that is an automatic yes, if those corporations are still in the mode of accumulation of capital and constant growth.
6 Likes
I totally agree. Humanity can’t do anything of substance with organizing together into groups, and those endeavors need structure and funding. Short of throwing out the free market completely (which I know some boingers might be okay with 
) companies are necessary. That said, the current implementation of large corporations seems pretty unabashedly evil. At the very least, they are way under-regulated and in constant violation of anti-trust. Something happens to people when they become part of a large enough machine- their morals become dilute and too much power gets concentrated in a sociopathic individual or small group at the top. The ones at the top do seem to be universally sociopathic. I don’t know if being so gets you to the top, or being at the top makes you that way, but it hardly matters. At the very least we need to start enforcing anti-trust like we used to, to prevent massive power concentrations.
The real problem with companies, in my view, is not their existence. It’s corruption. The government would be keeping them in check if it wasn’t corrupt. Citizens United may have been the tipping point, but lobbying and regulatory capture have been ruining this government for decades. I honestly have doubts it can be saved at this point.
7 Likes
Every corporate brand knows that this is the moment in history where they have to say something about which side they choose. I wish more did it in the unequivocal way Ben & Jerry’s did, but there’s a reason most of them are doing this.
6 Likes
Sure, but we’ve built large scale institutions prior to this particular one - we started in banded groups, where we figure out hunting, gathering, tool making, to settling down in villages, where we figured out how to domesticate animals and plants, then built cities, and finally empires. Religious organizations are another example. We’ve had colleges and universities prior to corporations too. All of these did just as much, if not more than modern corporation (and had their own problems with brutality of course) to build up large scale institutions that preserved human knowledge and created major projects that benefited humanity. Some good examples are the institutions Chinese or Romans developed during their height (“what have the Romans ever done for US?”), or the Irish monks preserving knowledge from their own culture and other cultures by copying out manuscripts, or the role of the Abbasid caliphate in doing the same. We would not know what we know about the Greeks if it had not been for both the Irish monks and the Abbasid intellectual class (which were supported by the state). Even today, so much of our infrastructure was built not by corporations, by because of the state - the highway system is a great example, the largest public works program in history.
I’d say that’s an understatement! 
Only… 1 person from a bank served time for 2008 market crash.
Absolutely, and that’s the other side of civilization (as we like to call it). Empires built infrastructure, but they also brutalized people (thinking of the violence that built the Great Wall, for one).
I think this is a particular pathology of capitalism.
Roger that!
I don’t know if the specific structure is the problem or if it’s a corruption of the structure, but given it’s roots, I lean towards the former. YMMV, of course. This doesn’t mean that we can’t rescue something out of it, but there has hardly been a time where the good weren’t shot through with much, much pure evil.
So, I don’t know. Large scale institutions can be positives, but is the specific model of the corporation the only way we can shape institutions?
9 Likes
Yah, that’s totally fair. I should not have suggested that companies were the only form of human collaboration. There are many forms and most work very well. The role that companies play in society now is way out-sized for their narrow goal of profit-generation, that’s for sure. It’s a very dystopian view to say that companies are somehow the solutions to the ills of society (particularly social problems). I believe I have way over-extended from my original position of replying to the notion that companies should never do anything except their specific business stuff. 
I reacted to the other commenter’s stoic view that people should leave their beliefs at home when they go to work. That’s not practical, possible, or even desirable, in my view. Companies can do good, even if they often don’t (especially the big ones). I would honestly entertain some sort of size limit on companies as a hedge against consolidation of power (just like we do in other institutions), but then, I guess that’s what anti-trust was for, back when anyone enforced it.
8 Likes
Speaks of unnecessary communication.
5 Likes
Mm, ice cream…
8 Likes
Ugh… I really hate that concept, especially as someone who teaches history. Capitalism would have us cordon ourselves off for the benefit of the system.
Agreed. I think we all have to wrestle with the notion if that makes the form worth preserving in the long run, or if something more humanistic can and should replace it. I don’t think there is an easy answer to that.
8 Likes
I guess my Wokey Road flavour wasn’t too far off…
Bah. I need to not be so bitter… this is at least some form of progress.
3 Likes
We at the East India Tea Company were heartbroken, as were many of you, by the recent events in Boston Harbor.
For years, our tea has been enjoyed by Boston-area families, and it is a beloved brand in homes and pantries all over “New” England.
For us, a cup of tea is a time for sharing and caring, with loved ones and friends. A cup of tea is a symbol of hospitality, and a shared pot of our signature brew — whether you prefer our full-bodied House Blend or one of our Estate-Grown Single-Origin DistinctlyTea™ Flavortime Flavors — can and should be the beginning of a wonderful conversation and a healing dialogue.
To those who were compelled last night at the harbor to act out of conscience, to speak truth to power, we can only say this: You are heard, you are seen, and we will now take a moment to listen to your stories and to celebrate your struggles.
We hope that you will share a cup of tea with your children as you explain to them what the events of the past few days can mean. And together, we hope that we at the East India Tea Company can be part of building a better world.
One Cup at a Time.
Keep safe, keep strong, and we’ll put the kettle on for you.™
12 Likes
slurping intensifies
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
