If corporations are afforded the same rights as individual persons, should they also be expected to have the same ethical and moral obligations and responsibilities? Who (if anyone) or what (if anything) should enforce fair play and competition between corporations?
From our discussions this week, to me the heart of this issue of the corporate conscience stems from an inability to determine how far personal rights extend to corporations. Some corporate freedoms have been legally affirmed such as the freedom of religion in the landmark Burwell vs Hobby Lobby case, or freedom of speech in the Citizens United vs FEC case. In other areas, however, corporations are treated much much differently, such as the inability of a corporation to ‘go to jail’. This amounts to corporations being allowed to pick and choose the best parts of ‘being a person’ while ignoring all the negative consequences. The consumerist article points out many of these nuances. This is in many ways unethical, especially if it enables corporations to perform actions that would be ‘illegal’ if performed by an individual.
Most companies are built (at least originally) around a consumer desire or need. During initial company growth, focus is usually on developing a viable marketable product. After entering the market, however, many companies lose sight of what the consumer wants in favor of reasserting corporate dominance in the market. This trend becomes even worse when corporations expand into parallel markets, such as Google and Microsoft have done within the past few decades. With all the products Google offers, they were/are incentivized to promote their own products first in their searches, even if the other products aren’t directly applicable to the search or the consumer. This is very similar to an affluent individual such as Elon Musk investing in ten thousand different companies, and having them all promote each other’s business endeavors. To me this is also unethical, as it is overly abusing personal success for the role purpose of personal gain.
I think Google should be split up. In order to create and foster the best possible search engine, it should be split off from Google so it can devote its full resources and research towards its goal, and will be more likely to prioritize consumers over other Google business sectors. Just as the government humans a role in officiating individual morality (at least to some extend) through laws and law enforcement, so too should it play a role in keeping corporations in checks. This involves both creating laws and regulations to guide corporation actions and behaviors, as well as enforcing these rules and regulations in a meaningful way.
Who decides what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’? I believe it should be a combination of the common people, the government, and corporations. In the end, it is people who are affected by corporation and government decisions. If everyone decides they desire convenience and are okay with Google promoting their own material, then maybe it should be allowed after all. There are, however, instances where what the people want isn’t always realistic or practical. Take socialism or communism for example. Although the theory sounds good in many ways, history has shown it as an idealistic project impossible to physically implement. In the same way, corporations and the government should have (some) weight on these big decisions.