A brief presentation about the social problem of inequality and power and how the Corporation is involved.

1. The
Corporation
A Battle For Equality and Power
Contemporary Social Issues
By Tim Spence

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Power and Inequality
 Power and Inequality 2
 Karl Marx, Power, and Inequality
 Marxism
 Karl Marx and Capitalism
 The Corporation
 A Legal Person
 Corporations, Legal Person, and Problems
 The Corporation and Inequality
 Wealth
 10 Richest Families in Canada
 The Corporation and Inequality 2
 The Corporation and Inequality 3
 Aftermath of the Water Scandal
 Corporations Hold the Power
 The Wrap up
 The Wrap up 2
 A Possible Solution
 References

3. POWER AND INEQUALITY
What is Power?
 In sociology, Power is considered the ability to command resources and
thereby control social situations.
 It is the basic concept to consider when attempting to explain both the
distribution of valued things and the relations between unequal groups in
society.
 Power is the essential determinant of social inequality.
(Hewitt, White, Teevan, 2011. p. 122)

4. POWER AND INEQUALITY
What is Inequality?
► Social differentiation is the term used by social scientists to describe the
diversity and complexity to social life.
► However, the process by which individuals, or categories of individuals, are
ranked on the basis of socially differentiated characteristics leads to relatively
enduring structures of social inequality among individuals and groups.
► Such groups being race, political, economic, age, and gender.
(Hewitt, White, Teevan, 2011. p. 122)

5. KARL MARX, POWER, & INEQUALITY
Who is Karl Marx and what does he say about Power
and Inequality?
 Marx, a German born sociologist of the 19th century, set out to understand
the contradictions between the great gap between the rich and poor.
 He was fascinated by the fact that capitalism could produce such
extraordinary wealth and yet leave so many people impoverished.
 Through his studies he found a common theme throughout historical social
organizations that were marked by struggle, either open conflict or
underlying antagonism, between the two main groups. (Hewitt, White, Teevan, 2011. p. 125)

6. MARXISM
What is Marxism?
 One of many perspectives of Conflict theory.
 It is a theory devised by Karl Marx arguing that contemporary society is held together by
capitalist domination.
 He continued by saying that this pits the proletariat (worker) against the bourgeoisie
(owner of capital) in a constant struggle for the profit from labour.
 He claimed that the relative calm of such societies was based on the capitalists’ coercion of
the proletariat and the worker’s lack of awareness of their own exploitation.
 The workers only hope for change, according to Marx, is to revolt against their
oppressors.
(Hewitt, White, Teevan, 2011. p. 8)

7. KARL MARX AND CAPITALISM
Marx’s Stance on Capitalism
 Marx’s believed what truly underlies the division of societies into two opposing
groups is the power that comes from ownership or non-ownership of properties.
 His focus was on private ownership of productive property or in his words “the
means of production”.
 Under Capitalism, productive property includes the resources necessary to
produce the essentials of life.
 He argued that the dominant group in any society was the one who owned the
means of production.
(Hewitt, White, Teevan, 2011. p. 125)

8. THE CORPORATION
What is a Corporation?
 A corporation is a group of people authorized to act as a legal person and
can be recognized as such.
 The 14th amendment cleared the path for this to become possible.
 The corporation exploded in the 18th century during the Industrial Age.
 Corporations are today’s dominant institution.
(Achbar, M., Abbott, J., Simpson, B. 2003)

9. A LEGAL PERSON
Watch this short video from the documentary “The Corporation” for a brief
yet thorough explanation of how a corporation can be a legal person.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkygXc9IM5U
As you will soon find out, having a corporation become
legally recognized as a person has it’s problems. . . . .

10. CORPORATIONS, LEGAL PERSON, &
PROBLEMS
How corporations being a legal person presents problems
to the rest of us.
 Corporations are not morally obligated entities whereas any individual human being is.
 Corporations are motivated by profit and can look to exploit whatever means necessary
to continue their dominance.
 All publicly traded corporations have been structured through a series of legal decisions
where they are legally obligated to place the financial interests of their owners above
competing interests including the public good.
 “They have no soul to save and no body to incarcerate” – Edward Thurlow
(Achbar, M., Abbott, J., Simpson, B. 2003)

11. THE CORPORATION & INEQUALITY
What does the corporation have to do with inequality?
 As corporations are collections of privately owned properties recognized by law as a legal
person they are, according to Marx, the dominant group in society.
 They collect the majority of the generated profit whereas the ones who were responsible
for creating such wealth only received a small portion.
 The distribution of wealth is best indicator of how groups or individuals rank in the
overall structure of inequality.
 Wealth itself is a form of property that can be used through investments to acquire more
wealth and property which a persons, in this case a corporation’s, position in the system
of inequality is maintained and remain dominant.
(Hewitt, White, Teevan, 2011. p. 126)

12. WEALTH
What is wealth and who has it?
 It is the total of the accumulated assets such as stocks, real estate, and durable goods by any
individual or group.
 The top 10 percent of Canada’s population held 58.2 percent of all wealth.
 The top 20 percent held 75 percent of all wealth.
 These numbers are somewhat consistent to Marxism and his description of social inequality;
the groups who own the majority of the wealth are the ones who dominate.
(Hewitt, White, Teevan, 2011. p. 134)

13. 10 RICHEST FAMILIES IN CANADA

14. THE CORPORATION AND INEQUALITY
Watch this short video and see how the Becthel Corporation
exploited the citizens of Cochabamba, Bolivia, by privatizing their
water supply. . . INCLUDING THEIR RAIN WATER!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw5Fon_EjGw

15. THE CORPORATION AND INEQUALITY
 After watching that short video it is evident that the theory of Marxism can apply to
those events.
 The Bechtel Corporation exploited the citizens of Bolivia due to the fact of their
disparities in wealth and bought the rights to their water. . . . .
 By turning around and doubling the price of water, citizens who already were living
in poverty, had to choose between buying water and other necessary resources
needed for adequate living standards.
 Was this a human rights violation and how would Marx view the aftermath of this
issue?
(“Corporate Greed,” 2011).

16. AFTERMATH OF THE WATER SCANDAL
 Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-
being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical
care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of
unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood
in circumstances beyond his control.”
 The citizens of Bolivia were forced to pay a quarter of their 2 dollar a day income on
water, at the same time having to sacrifice their right “to a standard of living
adequate for the health and well-being of themselves and their families.
 The Bechtel group played a role in violating this right as the citizens had to choose
between adequate living standards because of their unequal predisposition
economically.
 As a result, the citizens played right into the prediction of Marx, revolted against
their oppressors, and recaptured their rights to their water.
(“United Nations,” 2015). (Hewitt, White, Teevan, 2011).

17. COPORATIONS HOLD THE POWER
 Enron, a formal global powerhouse in the United States, gained control of
California’s power supply through a series of legislative deregulations during the
1990’s.
 They inevitably had the command of a major resource being California’s power grid.
 By holding power of this resource they initiated a series of wide-spread blackouts
and were able to generate a profit due to the increase of the states hydro fees which
had risen to nearly 1000 dollars per kilo-watt in some situations.
 Due to allegations of fraud they eventually collapsed, however many of the top
associates were able to walk away with their profits intact.
 In contrast, the millions of employees, investors, and pension funds went for next to
nothing, leaving them even poorer for their efforts.
 Marxism would say that because these capitalist control a resource to produce the
essentials for life, they were able to exploit the proletariat due to their lack of
awareness of the power outages that were not random but man made.
(Thomas, J. 2011. para. 6,7).

18. THE WRAP UP

19. THE WRAP UP
What does all this mean?
 As I have stated previously; power or ability to command resources, is the main
determinant when measuring social inequality.
 After examining these examples, passing laws that legally identify corporations as a
person, who conclusively show no signs that they are morally obligated to protect the
public good does not bode well for our society as a whole.
 As seen with the Bechtel and Enron Corporations; holding power over resources such as
water and electricity has major downfalls and promotes even greater inequality than what
already exists.
 Especially when a Corporation is legally obligated to place the financial interests for their
owners above all other competing interests. (“Corporate Greed,” 2011). (Thomas, J., 2011. para. 6,7,).

20. A POSSIBLE SOLUTION
What can initiate change?
 As this may seem very damning for the working class, there are possible solutions that can be
implemented to change the unequal distribution of wealth that can help eradicate inequality.
 The first thing that can be done is to strip the corporations ability to be recognized as a legal
person. This would create greater accountability for the owners and possibly influence change
in the way business will been done.
 The second thing that can be done is create a better distribution of the wealth and income any
major corporation generates. For instance, every employee of Loblaw’s receives a stake in the
company. Loblaw’s retains enough operating capital so they can continue business, however
any extra profit on top of their pay gets evenly distributed to the employees working in head
office to the employees at the distribution centers that make it possible for you and I to eat.
 I will leave you with this. . . Imagine if the bottom 80 percent who only retain 25 percent of
Canada’s wealth, stop going to work for a month. That bottom 80 percent is 24 million people
who stay at home for a month. What will the top 20 percent who own 75 percent of Canada’s
wealth do? Imagine the entire world did this. . . I think things would change. Don’t you?

21. REFERENCES
Achbar, M., Abbott, J., Simpson, B. (2003). The Corporation [DVD]. Canada: Big Picture Media Corporation.
Canadian Business Magazine. (2010). The rich list. Retrieved from
http://list.canadianbusiness.com/rankings/rich100/2010/ranking/Default.aspx?sp2=1&d1=a&sc1=0
Corporate Greed & Corruption Chronicles. (2011). Bechtel group: well-connected water privatizers & war
profiteers. Retrieved from https://corporategreedchronicles.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/bechtel-group-well-
connected-water-privatizers-war-profiteers/
Hewitt, W.E., White, J., Teevan, J.J., (2011). Introduction to sociology: a Canadian focus. Tenth edition. Toronto,
ON: Pearson Canada.
Thomas, J., (2011). The world’s inequality is due to corporate capitalism. Retrieved from
https://janetthomas.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/the-worlds-inequality-is-due-to-corporate-capitalism/
United Nations. (2015). The universal declaration of human rights. Retrieved from
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/