Corporations and Government

Bhola Bhattarai
14th September 2018
 Background
Ideas:
The first group sees the government as an important force for the good of the
people. This group believes the government has a vital role in keeping a close eye
on powerful corporations who would quickly victimize the people at any
opportunity.

The second group takes the opposite view. They see the government as evil and
corporations as good. They want all government regulations repealed so
corporations can maximize their profits.

To put it bluntly, one side believes that corporations will always do the right thing
for the people.

The other side believes that corporations would sell your organs to the highest
bidder if the government wasn't there to stop them.
 The Function of Government
• The preamble to the Constitution says our
government exists to “establish Justice, ensure
rights, provide for the common defense,
promote the general Welfare, ….
• Our government is designed to exist of the
people, by the people and for the people. It
exists solely for the purpose of doing what is
in our best interest
 The Function of Corporations
• Their objective is to maximize their profits.
• They have no loyalty to the people.
• They will create jobs to countries with cheaper
labor
• Corporations exist to make a very small
number of people extremely wealthy.
 Example
• Walmart is a good example of this.
• The Walton family is the richest family on Earth.
It is hard to keep track of how many tens of
billions of dollars each of them have from one
year to the next.
• they pay their employees such miserably low
wages that they routinely instruct their
employees how to apply for food stamps,
Welfare and Medicaid.
 Conti..
• Think about that. The multi-billionaires are paying their
employees such appalling wages that they have to get
government help from American taxpayers in order to
make ends meet.
• All the taxpayer money that goes to Walmart employees
amounts to a huge government subsidy for Walmart, one
of the most profitable companies on Earth.
• If Walmart would pay their employees a living wage, they
would save taxpayers billions of dollars and still make a
hefty profit.
 Government Role
• Forcing those companies to comply with health and
safety standards, pollution standards, and consumer
protection laws, we as consumers and employees
would suffer great harm, either physically or financially.
• Big corporations often work tirelessly to get health and
safety standards repealed and consumer protection
laws weakened so they can maximize their profits.
• They consider the lives saved by these regulations to
be much less important than the profits they could be
making.
 Relationship Between Government and
Corporations

• We, the people, through our elected government, are

supposed to exert regulatory power over corporations.
• But more and more lately, it seems corporations exert far
more power over the government and therefore, over the
people.
• Our government has an obligation to protect the people
from corporate abuses.
• This includes regulating the pollution of our air and
drinking water, workplace health and safety, unfair
business practices and fraud to name a few.
Discussions
Thank You