Not Business As Usual
This film, titled “Not Business As Usual,” takes a provocative look at capitalism and the price of success. According to Jay Coen Gilbert, co-founder of B Lab, twentieth century capitalism has one rule in its operating system which is that the purpose of the corporation is to maximize shareholder value exclusively, even if that means that there are significant unintended consequences.
It’s amazing how consumers have an unshakeable trust in the products they buy without bothering to check the ingredients or the manufacturer. History has taught us that on many occasions a product that was deemed “harmless for human consumption” turned out to be toxic or poisonous. Yet consumers continue to blindly buy whatever is placed out there and businesses make a whopping profit.
This happens because the mentality that “people who are successful have stuff” has shaped the minds of generations since WWII. And so people get into the habit of accumulating a lot of unnecessary items because big companies have consistently encouraged them to do so. Most people are convinced that in order to look and feel successful they have to have a lot of possessions. For businesses and manufacturing companies it has become all about making a profit. Never mind the effect of this on society or the environment.
The inevitable questions we need to analyze are: in today’s highly competitive market does it make sense to expect businesses to operate according to universal values? And is it realistic to expect a company to lose money just to accommodate business ethics?
Not Business as Usual intentionally exposes the changing landscape of businesses around the world due to the rising tide of conscious capitalism. Local entrepreneurs who have found inventive ways to bring humanity back into business, share their stories to prove that there is a better way. Watch this documentary now.
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I see people trying to do the right thing by trying to make capitalism less evil, but capitalism is about hierarchical control. Like it or not, even if we all start out with the same resources, capitalism will still lead to horrible wealth disparities and while people suffer, the better-off will walk by unconcerned by the plight of the losers. Eventually the dystopian horror in which we currently live will come about: the owner’s shall reward themselves with huge amounts of money while the middle class and the poor find that their real incomes have not risen in 40 years.
The legal person that a corporation is is required by law to forget the basic tenets of morality and put profits above everything else. Even if a person is dying, it is the duty of the insurance company to not pay for his healthcare if they are not required to.
Also, corporations are tyrannies, as Noam Chomsky has said, where there is no meaning of the term democracy. If anything is deemed democratic in a corporation, then that is most likely a joke because on closer examination one shall find that democracy and corporate hierarchies cannot exist. Without a social contract, without a limit on what a corporation can do to make money, without laws that punish the brazen immorality of corporations, nothing can move further. Without the removal of the personhood and his legally allowed psychopathy, no real change will come. Without the social element, all is lost.
So these small changes by “entrepreneurs” who are going to change their corporations are going to bring nothing but cosmetic changes. Even if these changes are significant, they will never extinguish the underlying immorality of corporations to which even such entrepreneurial corporations can revert to if the need arises.
What this is is the illusion of change, not the real change. Always remember that when the next person is dying on the street, no corporation is coming to help him and if they do they’ll put him in an emergency room and put him on the chains of debt slavery that cannot be broken in several human lifetimes.
Thanks! You saved me typing. Extremely well said.
While I agree with your statements (especially on the distribution of wealth within our capitalist economy, but that’s a whole other discussion),I have to admit it’s very inspiring seeing people who are sick of the current corporate model, and looking for a more meaningful way to make their living. Hell, I think they realise the capitalist model won’t work if the rich entrepreneur selling things has nobody but the poor to sell to; money needs to flow.
For curiosity’s sake over the last 2 years I’ve spent a lot of time looking at my impact on the world and behind most things I’ve bought, and it’s been fascinating. It definitely changes your perspective and makes you reevaluate your buying choices. It adds some frustration and time to your life, but makes you feel your not destroying the world as you buy.
People also seem to forget that companies change based on consumer buying habits…so if everyone makes a point to be socially aware in their purchases (even in small ways), things may actually start moving to a better end. That and the profit model isn’t sustainable, and I think we’re starting to hit that plateau.
social entrepreneurship