this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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Both are responsible.
Corporations are not people but they are made of people. People who will do whatever it takes to make profit, which means meeting demand.
Demand is created by consumers. Without people willing to pay the corporations that do terrible things to meet their demand, the terrible things would cease to be profitable.
Both are responsible. Corporations will not stop doing bad things if bad things bring more profit. That’s why it’s on consumers to be more mindful of what bad things they are financially supporting.
The action is taken by the big guys but only because millions of little guys are paying them to do it. They don’t need to care about taking the blame if doing so still rewards them with profit.
Corporations are not democracies. They contain one very powerful person (a CEO) and a handful of slightly less powerful people (a board and/or other C-levels). Everyone else is little more than a leaf swept away by the river.
Making the statement "corporations are made of people" whitewashes the fundamentally feudal wealth-power disparity that corporations embody.
The point is, they are fueled by money. That money comes from people who demand what they offer. If they don't profit from the demand, they're not going to keep supplying.
Every purchase we all make came from somewhere. Researching every little detail of everything we buy is mentally taxing and just not feasible, and most people depend on products that are unethically produced. Often times alternatives are unfeasible or inconvenient, so we accept the unethical things in exchange for our personal needs/wants.
We are ALL the problem. Yes, corporations are a big problem. So are the people who buy what they sell. It's easy to do absolutely nothing and blame someone else. It's hard to accept being a part of the machine and not only advocate for others to help change, but also change oneself.
Change needs to come from ALL directions. It will not come if people just cry about evil CEOs while said evil CEOs are still making bank off of the very same people that are crying. They're still getting the only thing they actually care about from the exchange. Profit.
I think this is discounting the fact how companies over time have pushed consumerism - as well as constantly creating new needs through marketing (think halitosis and mouthwash or diamond wedding rings)
While I agree that everyone has a responsibility in fixing our current economic climate, we're only here because of the manipulation of greedy corporations in the first place.
How could corporatations operate in their current capacity without sycophants? No corporatations aren't democracies, but they depend on workers.