American Liberalism and the Fundamental Flaw—The Foundation of the Corporate Problem
American Liberalism and the Fundamental Flaw—The Foundation of the Corporate Problem
This chapter establishes the groundwork for analyzing corporate responsibility by placing the issue in cultural context. It gives some examples of corporate misbehavior such as Coke's disregard of its employees' well-being, Unocal's use of slave labor in Myanmar, GM's exploding Malibu, Marriott's theft of money from preferred stockholders and bondholders, and Allied Signal's tax evasion. The chapter shows how the kind of thinking that led to the cavalier attitudes of these companies can be found in some basic truths about American culture, and how the corporate context exaggerates its effects. It argues that in order to understand the problems underlying the structure of American corporate law, it is essential to understand the foundations of American law upon which it was built.
Keywords: tax evasion, bondholders, stockholders, American culture
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