Uncle Sam’s
illustrious Corporations
Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon: American
corporations are household names worldwide! The first American corporations
were developed in the 1790s, almost instantly becoming key institutions in the
economy.Though corporations existed in outside the United States in the 19th
century ( Great Britain and Netherlands being a few examples) no other country
took to corporate development like America.In fact, there was a brief period of
unprecedented American corporate domination post World War 2 until the rise of
Japanese competition in the world markets.
“You
have two cows.You sell one and force the other to produce the milk of four
cows. Later you hire a consultant to
analyse why the cow has died.”
This popular satire depicts accurately a modern
American Corporation. Apathetic to the condition of these overworked employees,
the American corporations also tend to hire cheap labor and hence tend to boost
the Asian economies in the process. Thus while the corporations are doing good
for the top executives and shareholders, they may not be doing good for the
economy as a whole.
Corporations have played an imperative, if not
contentious, role in the socio-economic identity of the United States.It would
thus be a crime if I were not to mention Theodore Roosevelt’s quote about the
Great American Corporations :
“Great corporations exist only
because they are created and safeguarded by our institutions; and it is
therefore our right and our duty to see that they work in harmony with these
institutions.”
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