“Corporate” means “owned by lots of people, who make sure the managers behave themselves.” Why is that bad?
I was invited to Coffee Cat recently by someone who, in his invitation, commented, “I’d rather not go to Starbucks. They’re so corporate.”
Thus backing into another peeve of mine.
What’s with the objection with corporations? I’ve got a list (seems I always do, lately) of objections, and my responses—
- They’re impersonal. By “personal” they often mean “unique” or “friendlier.” Okay, all Starbucks look alike. Some people find that comforting; no matter where you go, a Starbucks will be a Starbucks. The employees will still be courteous; and if you’re regular enough, they’ll recognize you and remember your “usual.” (Unless you don’t have a “usual,” like me.) Often they’re a lot more willing to provide great customer service. When they botch an order, Starbucks apologizes and gives me free coffee coupons. When other places botch an order, they apologize and shrug; I have to demand a free coffee before I’d get one.
- They’re only focused on profits. So is everyone who owns a business. If you want to do charity work, you run a charity.
- You’re giving money to someone you don’t know instead of someone you know. I know many people that work at the Vacaville Walmart. My money doesn’t go directly to them; but any money I spend at a small business doesn’t go directly to the workers or owners there either. Not until suppliers and landlords (or big corporate mortgage companies) are paid, anyway.
- My money might go towards something I don’t approve of. This could always be true. When I spend $5 at a mom & pop hardware store, what’s to say that pop doesn’t use that money for his Klan dues, porn collection, meth, pirated Chinese
DVD s, assault weapons, or any number of things I don’t appreciate? Corporations are more obvious in what they spend their money on because they’re more accountable. Individuals aren’t. - They’re not accountable to anyone. Sure they are. Their leaders answer to board members and shareholders. If the leaders do anything to annoy either group, they’re fired. Individuals (like small business owners) answer to no one. If corporations are caught polluting, it makes the papers and heads will roll. If small business owners are caught dumping trash on the side of the road, they pay their fines and no one hears anything more. If a corporation cheats customers, people go to jail. If a small business owner cheats customers, the Better Business Bureau gets called. In every way, the small business is less accountable.
- “I support the little guy.” I support the little guy if he can produce as good or better than the big guy. That’s good, honest capitalism. If I’m supporting him because he can’t compete, that’s welfare. I only approve of welfare if people are somehow disabled, or will eventually wean themselves from it. But a lot of these shmucks make the same argument: “Small good, corporate bad.” Funny—you’d think they were capitalists, but they’re eager to switch to proto-Marxism whenever it serves their needs.
- They’re too powerful. Nothing is so powerful that it can’t be overthrown when it goes wrong. Pan Am used to be one of the most powerful corporations in the world; now it doesn’t exist. Standard Oil and AT&T; got split apart. It can happen.
Ultimately, I’m not pro-corporation; I’m just not anti-corporation. Sometimes corporate is better; sometimes it isn’t.
But I should say this: Whenever I do business with someone, especially over the internet, I am more often screwed over by individuals than corporations. Case in point: buying books over the internet. Whenever I buy stuff from Amazon, I get ’em within two weeks without fail. Whenever I buy stuff through Amazon, it could take two weeks; but sometimes it takes a month or longer or never. When this happens, Amazon is willing to pay me back for the purchase. So is Visa. God bless ’em.