Some people believe that corporations have a responsibility to promote the well-being of the societies and environments in which they operate.
Others believe that the only responsibility of corporations, provided they operate within the law, is to make as much money as possible.
Write a response in which you discuss which view more closely aligns with your own position and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should address both of the views presented.
Classical economics such as the Invisible Hand concept coined by Adam Smith states that an economy works most optimally when every participant acts in a self-interested manner. In recent decades, corporations have by and large embedded themselves as a prominent participant in most developed and many developing countries. The increased role of corporations as an entity that provides employment, affects regulation, and drives the economy has catapulted the corporation in the limelight with respect to social, environmental, and political issues. The Invisible Hand theory would have you believe that - just like all other actors in an economy - the corporation's role is to act in their own self interest and should not care about any other consequences besides the laws of a society. This is the "shareholder" model, where corporations are seen to be accountable only to their immediate owners or shareholders, who wish to profit from the corporation's ventures. A more contemporary theory, the "stakeholder" model, states that while the corporation's primary goal is to maximize profit for its shareholders, they are also responsible for the well-being of its stakeholders, and that taking this more holistic approach to define the responsibilities of a corporation will ultimately maximize the economic and social value of a corporation. The latter stakeholder model is the one I agree with.
In many cases, individual self-interest can undoubtedly lead to optimal decision making. For example, when a street vendor bargains with a customer in order to reach the optimal prize, the street vendor wishes to sell its product for a higher prize while the customer wishes for the opposite, and the bargaining process eventually brings the prize to an equilibrium that both parties can agree on. In this case, the bargaining process has made the price of the product more efficient, in that the price maximizes the satisfaction of both parties. However, in the case where there is unequal bargaining power between two parties, for example between a corporation and its employees, I would argue that the dominant party has a responsibility to uphold the fairness of the process when regulation is lacking. Rather than exploiting the absence of minimum wage and workplace safety rules in various developing countries, a multinational manufacturing firm should exercise its financial power to pioneer these standards in places they wish to expand its factories into. While proponents of the Invisible Hand theory would state that corporations should act in their self-interest in this case, and the issues of a living wage and safe working conditions is a problem for the government, this argument simply does not hold true in the real world. Not only do corporations hold an immense amount of power over its employees, they can also have a large amount of sway in governments who wish to win over manufacturing contracts and provide jobs to its citizens. In this case, a corporation who acts on only a profit motive will be tempted to use its negotiating power to influence regulation, pushing for lower taxes, lower wages, lower environmental standards, and a lax workplace safety code of conduct. All of this results in increased profits for the corporation, but at the detriment of the government who receives less taxes, employees who receive less wages and a more dangerous workplace, as well as any negative environmental impacts that often follow industrial production.
A corporation is an entity devoted to a particular line of business, or oftentimes even many lines of businesses. In its pursuit for profit, a corporation can create immense wealth for itself as well as the society it operates in through creation of new products and employment. However, due to the large amount of bargaining power that a multinational corporation can hold, they have an additional responsibility to ensure that their business is also in line with proper social, environmental, and political standards. As someone once told Batman, with great power comes great responsibility.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 149, Rule ID: IN_A_X_MANNER[1]
Message: Consider replacing "in a self-interested manner" with adverb for "self-interested"; eg, "in a hasty manner" with "hastily".
...t optimally when every participant acts in a self-interested manner. In recent decades, corporations have b...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 653, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'corporations'' or 'corporation's'?
Suggestion: corporations'; corporation's
...ke all other actors in an economy - the corporations role is to act in their own self intere...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 1948, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun wages is countable.
Suggestion: fewer
...eives less taxes, employees who receive less wages and a more dangerous workplace, a...
^^^^
Discourse Markers used:
['also', 'besides', 'but', 'however', 'so', 'well', 'while', 'for example', 'such as', 'as well as', 'by and large', 'in many cases', 'with respect to']
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance in Part of Speech:
Nouns: 0.264255910987 0.240241500013 110% => OK
Verbs: 0.118219749652 0.157235817809 75% => OK
Adjectives: 0.100139082058 0.0880659088768 114% => OK
Adverbs: 0.0417246175243 0.0497285424764 84% => OK
Pronouns: 0.0333796940195 0.0444667217837 75% => OK
Prepositions: 0.126564673157 0.12292977631 103% => OK
Participles: 0.0208623087622 0.0406280797675 51% => OK
Conjunctions: 3.28377511598 2.79330140395 118% => OK
Infinitives: 0.029207232267 0.030933414821 94% => OK
Particles: 0.00139082058414 0.0016655270985 84% => OK
Determiners: 0.122392211405 0.0997080785238 123% => OK
Modal_auxiliary: 0.0180806675939 0.0249443105267 72% => OK
WH_determiners: 0.0166898470097 0.0148568991511 112% => OK
Vocabulary words and sentences:
No of characters: 4097.0 2732.02544248 150% => OK
No of words: 648.0 452.878318584 143% => OK
Chars per words: 6.3225308642 6.0361032391 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.04537849152 4.58838876751 110% => OK
words length more than 5 chars: 0.385802469136 0.366273622748 105% => OK
words length more than 6 chars: 0.299382716049 0.280924506359 107% => OK
words length more than 7 chars: 0.223765432099 0.200843997647 111% => OK
words length more than 8 chars: 0.175925925926 0.132149295362 133% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.28377511598 2.79330140395 118% => OK
Unique words: 313.0 219.290929204 143% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.483024691358 0.48968727796 99% => OK
Word variations: 60.7746239086 55.4138127331 110% => OK
How many sentences: 20.0 20.6194690265 97% => OK
Sentence length: 32.4 23.380412469 139% => OK
Sentence length SD: 81.7767693175 59.4972553346 137% => OK
Chars per sentence: 204.85 141.124799967 145% => OK
Words per sentence: 32.4 23.380412469 139% => OK
Discourse Markers: 0.65 0.674092028746 96% => OK
Paragraphs: 3.0 4.94800884956 61% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 3.0 5.21349557522 58% => OK
Readability: 62.3382716049 51.4728631049 121% => OK
Elegance: 2.12949640288 1.64882698954 129% => OK
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.521003574239 0.391690518653 133% => OK
Sentence sentence coherence: 0.142908416814 0.123202303941 116% => OK
Sentence sentence coherence SD: 0.0850669334495 0.077325440228 110% => OK
Sentence paragraph coherence: 0.503749092124 0.547984918172 92% => OK
Sentence paragraph coherence SD: 0.141712610025 0.149214159877 95% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.211464431853 0.161403998019 131% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0979841737057 0.0892212321368 110% => OK
Paragraph paragraph coherence: 0.548552014058 0.385218514788 142% => OK
Paragraph paragraph coherence SD: 0.0948766400947 0.0692045440612 137% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.410725144978 0.275328986314 149% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0810885818544 0.0653680567796 124% => OK
Task Achievement:
Sentences with positive sentiment : 18.0 10.4325221239 173% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 5.30420353982 38% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 0.0 4.88274336283 0% => More neutral sentences wanted.
Positive topic words: 13.0 7.22455752212 180% => OK
Negative topic words: 2.0 3.66592920354 55% => OK
Neutral topic words: 0.0 2.70907079646 0% => More neutral topic words wanted.
Total topic words: 15.0 13.5995575221 110% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 Out of 6
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Note: This is not the final score. The e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.