“Corporation” is not a dirty word

Excuse me in advance, because I'm about to say a dirty word: corporation. While Ralph Nader has been all but forgotten since his laughable drive at the presidency, his anti-corporate policies have stuck around. Unfortunately, these anti-corporate sentiments are gaining ground in the mainstream. Just like the people who voted for Nader trendy enough to want to oppose something, but not smart enough to know what to oppose those who rail against profits and industrialization are simply not thinking rationally.

Even in the Wall Street Journal, that bastion of free-economic thought, modern lexicon is changing to accommodate those who see profit-motive as wrong. It is unconscionable that the Wall Street Journal, or any reputable news source, would actually give the slightest credibility to fluffy stories on "humane capitalism," or markets driven to serve a common good.

The new lexicon has adapted to show that an industrialist is greedy by default, while a blue-collar worker on the factory floor is seen as the new heroic ideal. This is an unfortunate state of affairs, not because self-interest is wrong, but because self-interest is broadly misconstrued as avarice.

This distinction deserves note. Avarice is greed at the expense of others. Self-interest may be called greed, but self-interest does not involve a moral sacrifice or a sacrifice of another's interests.

An industrialist, by his very nature, acts in his self-interest by providing a good or service that will benefit others. However, the reason the industrialist offers such goods and services is not so that "society" will benefit, but so that he will receive a marginal benefit for his efforts. That society does, in fact, benefit from these goods and services is a mere side-effect of profit-motive. No one would trade, and thus, no one would make the inevitable gains from trade, under a system that robbed the industrialist of profit-motive.

Although corporate profit-motive has been mislabeled as avarice, when we look closely at the side-effects of corporate greed, we see that it is the industrialist who provides goods and services beneficial to society, provides jobs, makes intellectual and scientific progress and moves society forward. All of these benefits stem from pure corporate greed. The blessing to society known as corporate greed is created by the industrialist.

The blue-collar worker, however, does not come close to matching the benefit to society gained through the industrialist. In fact, workers, in general terms, are merely along for the ride. While the industrialist has a passion for his work that drives him to create from nothing, the worker replaces passion with a paycheck. The reason, then, why the industrialist is called greedy is because of his passion, while at the same time, a worker is called noble because of his low paycheck boils down to nothing more than true avarice on the part of the workers.

To clarify this point, a factory worker, in general terms, will jump on a better paying job at any old factory across town for no better reason than a fatter wallet, even if it means sacrificing a job with an industry he may truly be passionate about. This is the worst form of avarice the form that sacrifices not other people, but one's own self and one's own passion.

On the other hand, look at how many top executives at established companies jump ship to start their own firms, which was especially apparent during the tech boom of the late 1990s. They traded the fat paycheck they were receiving from the big-name corporations for the passion that they found in entrepreneurship. The fact that many of them sacrificed their wealth for equity in a corporation that provides goods and services that society sees as beneficial is further proof of their passion.

The difference between an industrialist and a common worker is not wealth, but pride. The fact that industrialists take pride in the passion they have for their work, and in a similar vein, take pride in the profits they earn as an indicator of the success of their passion, is the most fundamental reason why society progresses. A new idea cannot and will not be formulated by anyone working for government, society or altruism. The ideas that shape our modern society were all born from and nurtured by the industrialist.

One might say that industrialists merely feed off the workers. Or, one might say that nothing could be accomplished if it were not for the blue-collar worker. To challenge the former, I would say that a worker never gave anyone a job, and a worker never will; only industrialists create jobs. The latter statement is closer to truth. Nothing can truly be accomplished in a large corporation without general labor, a statement that points to the fact that industrialists and general labor are interdependent.

Why then are industrialists vilified if they are interdependent with common labor? Jealousy, plain and simple. Industrialists do not feed off of common labor; this is why industrialists are wealthier. After all, one can only imagine what a paltry existence feeding off the lowest laborers must be.

The hypocrisy of the organized worker must be revealed here. Industrialists create jobs, while unionized labor destroys them under the rhetorical smokescreen of claims to create jobs and raise standards of living. If terms are forced upon the industrialist by labor, the industrialist is crippled, creating fewer jobs, goods and services. If minimum wage is implemented or raised, industrialists face coercion from government to pay unskilled labor more than it is worth. In a truly free market, labor is always rewarded according to its merit.

"Collective bargaining" is a euphemism for "collective coercion under the disguise of societal benefit." Union workers rob nations of jobs, wealth, progress and benefit for a few extra cents tacked onto an hourly wage. This is greed at the expense of the aforementioned jobs, wealth, progress and benefit, plus the expense of the workers' own morality, making the unionized workers' avarice the worst, largest and most blatant modern society has ever seen.

Do not damn corporations that act in their self-interest, for they create progress. Instead, damn the industrialists who sacrifice themselves to the lazy unionized worker by giving in to collective coercion. These industrialists are willing to sacrifice their passion, which results in a sacrifice of corporate integrity. Loss of integrity results in failed industry, lost jobs, stagnant economy and all the ill effects one can expect from the leech known as organized labor.

The new ideal of the heroic blue-collar laborer is incredibly ironic. For in this fantasy land, there exists the greedy industrialist, who, in reality, creates progress, and the noble poor, who, in reality does more against the societal progress they profess to love than an industrialist ever could, short of joining their ranks. Objectively speaking, corporate greed is a societal good, and nothing should be done to check its growth.

Editorial Writer John Hoedeman is an undeclared sophomore. He can be reached at dtrojan@usc.edu or (213) 740-5665.

Copyright 2001 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 144, No. 59 (Tuesday, November 20, 2001), beginning on page 5 and ending on page 6.