The Cultural Obsession with Corporation-Hate
Every day I feel like I read another article despising the enormous profits of companies. And recently, most of these barbs have been directed at oil companies--who, according to the media, have been gouging customers while raking in enormous amounts of money. When the Chairman of Exxon was given a $400 million (approx.) retirement package, media outlets across the country went bizerk...at least for a little while. But I just don't know why.
Exxon's chairman was responsible for huge amounts of corporate growth; he directed the companywhile it created more wealth and gave the investors more wealth. Which brings me to the main point for this post/rant. Corporations are not large, evil institutions hell-bent on taking people's money. Corporations are entities created by people and managed by people. Exxon's wealth pays the salary for hundreds of thousands of people, plus it gives value to many people's stock portfolio.
Of course, you say, stock is only owned by the rich. First, I have some stock, and I'm certainly not rich. Secondly, many pension funds in America own stock. That means your little granny has a vested interest in seeing the stock market go up; she has a vested interest in Exxon making money to keep her retirement account from going bust.
Corporations don't hoard wealth--they share it with employees and stockholders. It's an amazing process. If you want to know about an entity that hoards money, think of the Federal Government. But that's another topic for another day.
Mainly, I think we need to shift our thinking away from seeing these corporations as evil. Sure, Enron and Worldcom were corrupt and terrible companies. But that's two out of thousands. Let's not forget that corporations are owned and run by people .
Comments
Happenstance Said: (April 22, 2006 07:37 PM)
Right on! I cringe whenever I hear my friends and neighbors complaining about Exxon's profits. The truth is that my husbands retirement package includes big oil--and I'd wager that thiers do too!
Janie Said: (April 22, 2006 08:03 PM)
Yeah it is pretty crazy the way our government and media have jumped all over Exxon's profits. But I agree with you in the fact that they don't hoard their wealth. They invest billions into R&D and keep American people working!
andreww Said: (April 23, 2006 05:28 PM)
I just do not understand why so many people do not like big business and corporations. Do they not understand how many employees each has or how much this country depends on them? ExxonMobil alone employs over 85,000 people. We need to start supporting these companies rather than attacking them and their employees.