The incorporation of greed

Wade Rowland wrote much of his book, Greed, Inc., while he held the Maclean Hunter Chair of Ethics in Communications at Ryerson University. I was in his class.

“I should have everyone from that class burn their notes,” Rowland chuckles when asked how much the book and class notes might intersect. I certainly don't have my notes anymore but my memory is good enough that many of the themes from that class appear again and again in this book that is part moral philosophy, part economic history.

There is no mystery to the target of Rowland's fourth book; the subtitle sums it up nicely, “Why corporations rule our world and how we let it happen.” In it Rowland wails against the increasing influence of corporations in our world and the pervasiveness with which they infect every aspect of our lives.

Ryerson University was as appropriate a spot for this manifesto to brew as could be found. After all, Rowland wasn't the Chair of Ethics, rather he held the Maclean Hunter Chair of Ethics. Can there be any simpler or more direct way to associate your publication with ethics? The journalism school is housed in a building named after a cable company and the computer lab boasts the name of a major Toronto newspaper. In the last few decades schools have transformed from advertising-free spaces to leading edge of public-private partnerships.

What's wrong with that?

“Good things come out of corporations but only when it is in their favour. They simply don't have a gene for charity. There's no such thing as an altruistic corporation and an anonymous donation from a corporation is impossible,” it's a theme Rowland returns to again and again. If CEOs distributed shareholders money into charities they would end up in jail. When they do things for the public good it is always certain to have an ulterior motive.

And what about recent cases in the U.S. where Enron, Tyco, and Worldcom leaders have recently been facing charges? “That was just to curb crimes against corporations, not crimes against people. They are going to jail because they are undermining the stock market, the system that funds corporations,” said Rowland.

In his book Rowland cites Marriott hotels as an example of a corporation doing something for its own good and packaging it as something for the community. Marriott began hiring “non-traditional employees” because employee turnover rates could surpass 100 per cent over a year. These non-traditional employees had a turnover rate of just nine per cent. In bluntspeak, these new employees were physically and mentally handicapped. They were loyal, dedicated and didn't complain. Rowland's problem with this scenario is expressed in his lucid, sensitive prose:

“No one would deny that it is a fine thing to have the handicapped gainfully employed, should they wish to have a job. But what does Marriott's program say about the working conditions they offer ‘traditional’ workers? The turnover rate suggests something far from satisfying. Should we expect the handicapped to put up with workplace conditions that others spurn? What does this say about the status we assign them?”

The spectre of what would happen to us if we were all as vulnerable as the handicapped is one worth pursuing. One need simply look at the greeter at your local Wal-Mart or an elderly person working for minimum wage at McDonald's to guess what corporations would have us doing were we more vulnerable. The impression is that none of this would bother Rowland too much were it not for one thing. Under the law corporations have the same rights as humans.

Author, Wade Rowland

“These things are tools like a dishwasher or a lawnmower,” he said. “Would you let them run your life? It's absurd to think that corporations should have access to human rights. The weight of propaganda has been so overwhelming that the resistance to corporations has withered.”

What really sticks in his craw is the 1886 U.S. Supreme Court decision that granted the Southern Pacific Railroad personhood under the law and over the last 130 years corporations have sought out legal protections designed for humans in the U.S., Canada, Europe and elsewhere.

"We built these institutions and while this is a big myth to change, so was the Berlin Wall. That's just another myth that collapsed when people started thinking about it differently," Rowland said confidently.

The tone of the book is also confident in that it begins slowly, with a rich historical perspective and builds relentlessly towards a stronger, nuanced argument. Rowland's writing is clear despite dealing with occasionally weighty philosophical points. Most enjoyably, the book uses anger tempered with reflection to make insightful and thought-provoking points rather than counting on vitriolic hyperbole to tell us that corporations are bad. After all, corporations aren't bad, they're just amoral, and we're the ones who made them.

Greed, Inc. is published by Thomas Allen & Sons Ltd., with a retail price of CDN$36.95

Photograph by Christine Collie Rowland