The Corporation was made in 2003, it is a Canadian documentary film written by University of British Columbia by a law professor Joel Bakan, and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The documentary examines the modern-day corporation. Bakan also wrote the book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, during the filming of the documentary
The film was nominated for over 26 international awards, and won the World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, 2004, along with a Special Jury Award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2003 and 2004.
Review
The film made me wonder, where once we used to shop at our local shop and have bread and milk delivered by the local milkman from the local farms, now we shop in a superstore that is worldwide, eat at fast food restaurants that are everywhere and wear clothes made in the third world by those living in sweatshops. This documentary looks at the Corporation as if it was a person, charting its expansion, its character and the belongings the idea of income driven corporations has had on the world we live in.
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The film allows the CEOs to get a fair chance to present their opinions and it never demonizes any of them, the vast majority of them actually come off as very nice guys who seem to genuinely want to be ethical, environmental etc. Not only does this give the film a balanced feel but it also makes the subject scarier. The film is not perfect of course and, looking around the audience after the film, it is evident that this film has mostly played too converted rather than winning new converts in the main. I guess I preferred the ending to the alternative of being told to eat mung beans and make our own clothes but it is easy to feel that we just have to believe what we are being told is
This article is written using an enlightened self-interest approach. The author describes Wal-Mart behaving in a way that increases its own benefits, with the outcome of their actions being the most important consideration. An example of this is the author’s notion that Wal-Mart’s low prices are due to “the exploitation of its workers” (McLachlan, 2009, pg. 289), “systematic use of ‘maquiladoras’ in conditions of extreme exploitation” (McLachlan, 2009, pg. 289), and Wal-Mart’s threat to move production to China to obtain lower prices. In this article, the author implies that Wal-Mart’s actions demonstrate that they are not concerned with finding the most ethical behaviour; they are merely interested in the action(s) that most closely achieve their goal to remain the “biggest chain of direct sales to the consumer in North America”. (McLachlan, 2009, pg. 289)
To grasp the future of work one must watch the film of Sergio Kirby and Lixin Fan to obtain a firm knowledge of the future of work in order to improve upon it. Sergio Kirby’s Wal-Town: The Film is a 66 minute documentary filmed in Canada that seeks to raise public awareness on the negative impacts that Walmart introduces in small town Canadian communities. The documentary includes six university activists attempting to put an end to Walmart’s negative impacts by trekking a journey of public awareness across the various Walmart’s in Canada .The students conclude that Walmart negatively impacts small communities by forcing citizens to become consumers, denying unionization, and closing small business in the local areas. The film gathers
Roger And Me is a documentary that carries a considerable economic significance by presenting a modern version of capitalism, and by depicting an interesting example of Gunnar Myrdal’s theory of the circular and cumulative causation. Flint, the hometown of the filmmaker Michael Moore, has been built around the factories of one of the largest auto corporations in the world – General Motors. For decades on end the company has been prosperous, making high profits and keeping its workers loyal and content with their jobs and payment. Everyone in Moore’s family has worked for General Motors; the Flint residents have become not only economically but also spiritually and culturally connected with and influenced by the company – a
Judith Halberstam points out that the movie Chicken Run illustrates how aggressive industrial businesses maximize profits above anything else or businesses that have a partnership between owners and workers to maximize profits. “What are we to make of this Marxist allegory in the form of a children’s film”
With advanced technology comes the globalization and moving businesses to third world countries from U.S. This movement caused the rate of unemployment to rise and people see themselves in struggle to take care of their families. These issue are the complex of corporations in America. After seeing the movie (The Corporation) based on the book written by Canadian Professor Joel Bakan, we see that corporations are institutions that creates great wealth and profit but in the other hand causes enormous and hidden harm to people. Corporation cannot be imprisoned for criminal activities. Corporations are not humans they are designed by law to be concerned only for their stockholders. This is the issues that we see in our modern society the rich
The term “Big Business” immediately draws a negative connotation for many people. Furthermore, it appears that over the past decades globalized businesses have been found guilty of corruption, tax evasion, child labor, and harsh working conditions. The BGS’s interactions with Wal-Mart have helped the conglomerate become the largest retailer in the world (Bethel University, 2017). Moreover, now it is one of the leading, cutting edge, and most prosperous businesses in American history.
Not Business As Usual is a documentary that explores the beginnings of “conscious capitalism” and its unintentional price of success. The film offers an alternative view of businesses by tracking the movement of a few entrepreneurs that aspire to include social and environmental considerations in addition to seeking profit in their businesses. A free market for goods and services, capitalism is substantial. It drives innovation, progress, and prosperity. However, should “profit” be the only metric to measure success?
The business outlook for Costco Wholesale Corporation (Costco or “the company”) is bright. Costco as we know and love today started out as Price Club, which was founded by legendary business man Sol Price. In 1975, Price was forced out of a chain of discount department store company he founded called FedMart. Shortly after, he drew up the concept of a "warehouse store" retail model on a napkin. Costco and its subsidiaries began operating in 1983 in Seattle Washington. It engages in the operation of membership warehouse in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, United Kingdom, Mexico, Japan, Australia and Spain. It also has majority-owned subsidiaries in Taiwan and South Korea. The company operates as an international chain of membership warehouses. The product line of Costco to their customers includes food (dry and packaged), sundries (tobacco, beverages, cleaning supplies), hardlines (major appliances, electronics, beauty aids), fresh food, softlines (apparel, home furnishings), and ancillary and other (gas stations, pharmacy, food court). By using a membership format, and strictly controlling the entrances and exits of its warehouses, Costco has lower inventory losses than those of other discount retail operators. The company recorded revenues of $116,199 million in the financial year ended August 2015 (Fiscal Year 2015), an increase of 3.2% over Fiscal Year 2014. The operating profit of the company was $3,624 million in Fiscal Year 2015, an increase of 12.5% over
Whether it's a brand new 59” LCD widescreen television or merely a pack of gum, each purchase you make from a Walmart store inadvertently results in a higher price paid; both within your community as well as the greater world around you. Relying entirely upon you-the ever consuming scavenger – to fuel the bustling utopia of the manufacturing industry, exists Walmart. More importantly, Walmart relies upon the oblivion towards matters outside of our own lives that we as society generally project. However, by looking past our own greed in a world full of price cuts and sales, we can expose Walmart for what it truly is; an entirely corrupt corporation feeding off of countries' vulnerabilities and reaping the benefits.
In the book, The Corporation Joel Bakan presents arguments, that corporations are nothing but institutional pathological psychopaths that are “a dangerous possessor of the great power it wields over people and societies.” Their main responsibility is maximizing profit for their stockholders and ignoring the means to achieve this goal, portrays them as “psychopathic.” Bakan argues that, corporations are psychopaths, corporate social responsibility is illegal, and that corporations are able to manipulate anyone, even the government.
When trying to make connections between democracy and capitalism, and how they play a role in our everyday society, looking closely at the emergence of a powerful company can be very informative. Throughout the documentary Henry Ford American Experience, we are introduced to the humble beginnings of the one well-known company in today’s society, the Ford Motor Company. With the in-depth account of the creator himself, Henry Ford and the focus on the labor practices used in his company, one can understand how the establishment came to be.
I always knew that corporations just wanted your money, but after watching the documentary I was pretty outraged at what many companies will do just to get it. The complete disregard for human health and well-being is flabbergasting to me. Kids in sweat shops, people dying from simple staph infections, and many more horrible things that companies do to make a buck are ridiculous. If companies are given most rights people do, then they should be given the same punishments that people would if they would do any of the things these corporations are doing. Some of these companies aren’t getting away with it, but many are still and more needs to be done in order to stop harming the
In the book, The Corporation Joel Bakan, presents arguments: that corporations are nothing but institutional pathological psychopaths that are “a dangerous possessor of the great power it wields over people and societies.” Their main responsibility is maximizing profit for their stockholders and ignoring the means to achieve this goal. This in results portrays them as “psychopathic.” Bakan argues that: corporations are psychopaths, corporate social responsibility is illegal, and that corporations are able to manipulate anyone, even the government.
Starbucks has evolved and itself become an icon of globalisation, symbolising the role of corporations in combatting the consumerist society that is the West and exploiting the rest of the world, particularly the vulnerable and poverty stricken Global South. Thus, the contention of this essay is to highlight that the new globalised world has resulted in the exploitation of the Global South, in order to fulfil the consumerist society that is the Global North. This exploitation is exemplified by Starbucks, one of the largest corporations in
Since corporations are not physical things or people, it is very easy for them to avoid any kind of trouble. Corporations have become great at passing on their externalities to the public. An externality is an expense of any kind, whether it is something such as environmental damage or forcing people in an area to pay money for something, that a corporation forces the public to pay for while they privatize all profits. Corporations being externalizing machines fit in very well with their psychopathic behavior. They externalize any cost to the public because they can and it helps them achieve their goal of making as much money as possible. A quote from Robert Monks puts it very well, he says “The corporation is an externalizing machine