The typical corporation:
From On a Clear Day you can see General Motors by J Patrick Wright - The "Damning" and "illuminating" (Saturday Review) insider report from back when
"What's good for GM is good for America". These are examples from just ONE corporation:
(To dig up dirt on other corporations, check out this site.)
- No important product innovations for over 25 years. "year in and year out we were urging Americans to sell their cars and buy new ones because the styling
had changed."
- The dictatorial lack of dissent (pages 39-58) Brown-nosing the boss to the point of absurdity (p45) "local employees...attended his decisions with
unwavering support, even if they thought the decisions were wrong. This was business loyalty. It not only capitalized on a natural inclination to support the
man on top. It made it mandatary." This is among the main problems with all dictatorships.
- Totalitarianism, to the point that getting remarried could ruin your career. (p10)
- The plotting and scheming between executives
- Censorship of constructive criticism - speeches by executives would edited four or five times by management. In one case 10-12 meetings were held over a
questions of what to do with 400 cars - resulting in one speech written per car! In the end the problem was solved by selling them in Canada, where pollution
laws were more lax.
- 600 to 700 pages of practically useless paperwork daily, to be done by $600,000 a year executives (p27) - while conservatives go on about government
bureaucracy!
- Hiring of spies to dig up dirt on the personal life of consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who wrote an expose of the deadly Corvair. (Thousands of people died
because GM wanted to save $15 per car.)
- Other cars had a defect causing the accelerator to jam at about 25MPH until they crashed. When explaining why these cars would not be recalled, it was said
that anyone who "can't manage a car at 25MPH shouldn't be driving". (p69) (Though if they didn't, GM wouldn't make very many sales!)
- GM decided which politicians executives would donate to, and how much (Not that anyone making $600,000 as a professional gossip would vote very
progressively anyway.)
- Dictatorial control over dealerships (p74-75)
"Never once while I was in GM management did I hear substantial social concern raised about the impact of our business on America, its consumers, or the
economy...When we should have been planning switches to smaller, more fuel-efficient, lighter cars...management refused because "we make more money on
big cars."...It was typical. And what disturbed me is that it was indicative of fundamental problems with the system.
"GM certainly was no more irresponsible than many American businesses. But the fact that the "prototype" of the well-run American business...delivered
decisions that which...were sometimes illegal, immoral or irresponsible is an indictment of the American business system." (p63)
According to conservative ideology, GM would have gone out of business. As of 1999 they haven't.