Assignment Task: Watch the film "The Corporation"
Respond thoroughly to the following two questions:
1. Robert Monks, a talking head in the film, says:
"A corporation is an externalizing machine in the same way that a shark is a killing machine. Each one is designed in a very efficient way, to accomplish particular objectives. In the achievement of those objectives there isn't any question of malevolence or of will. The enterprise has within it, and the shark has within it, those characteristics that enable it to do that for which it was designed."
What does this say about the way that we've structured corporations through our legal/charter system? Is he letting corporations off the hook here?
2. What would the authors of the film "The Corporation" (released in 2003) have to say about the 2019 pledge by the 183 CEOs of the Business Roundtable to look out for all of their stakeholders and not just their shareholders? Do you think that the issues raised by the filmmakers have been addressed adequately since the film was made? In what ways have they - and have they not - been addressed?