Self-regulation does not work for corporations, the government needs to take a "hands-on approach". "Triple bottom line" accounting still attempts give everything a value in terms of medium-of-exchange(money), this is a big problem with all accounting methods. Oxygen and Water, which are relatively abundant on the planet have a lower medium-of-exchange value than oil. By altering the amount of oxygen, water, and other naturally occurring chemicals in the atmosphere by adding artificial chemicals even a few ppm(particles per million), we are changing the atmospheric conditions that made it possible for humans to evolve on this planet. The long-term survival for humans is being threatened.

My check of the net indicates that, of the 54 nations which got poorer, almost all were located in Subsaharan Africa, and most had experienced civil war during the period. In other words, these are countries in which private investment is not taking place, and whose misery cannot be attributed to corporations.

..What an utterly pollyannic post - pure right wing apalogia that could have come straight from a Haliburton annual report flak. "Civil war" in the interests of whom? - what agencies? and most importantly what commodities?.

Any changes that have begun to take effect for the positive ( for the benefit of citizens ) are seen for example in South America - where the local plutocrats and international corporate "shareholder" imperial interests are being slowly replaced by cooperativism and local worker control.

Ordinarily, I don't respond to comments since I've already had my say. But that comment about civil wars sounds like it came from George Bush's history teacher. Who do you think supplied arms to both sides in those civil wars? The Gun Fairy?

2 examples:oil in Sudan & Talisman Energy, diamonds in Sierra Leone & De Beers. In both cases corporations contributed to the civil strife.

Corporations are only a part of the problem. The very shareholders that we hope will help drive the corporations to show some humanity are also part of the problem. The final part is rampant consumerism and that is the part that will kill us all in the end. The problem with shareholders is that they expect a profit from their involvement. Sounds reasonable enough, but each time someone takes a penny from the pot, that leaves a penny less for the poor soul making the product. The shareholder contributes financial support to start the process, but that chain has become so long and heavy that someone must pay for that support. It won’t be the people that run the corporation; they skim directly off the top. So the shareholders want their return and it has to come from somewhere, invariably it comes from the ones who have the least amount of clout, the workers sustaining the production. The whole notion of shareholders has become so perverted that it cannot remain sustainable. In order to raise capital corporations must attract investment, but there are far too many people waiting in line with their hands out. So much of business these days is devoted to so many who do nothing but drain wealth from the creation of goods and services. By the time the costs are tallied up loan sharking would seem to be a cheaper alternative. There are more than enough resources on this planet to provide every person with a reasonable life, access to food, medical aid and a decent education. More than enough, that is, until you start draining off the proceeds and putting the bulk of them into just a few hands. I cannot think of a situation where one person’s work is worth pennies and another person’s work is worth millions of dollars. But the real demon is consumerism. We waste endless amounts of energy making things that are just plain junk. We waste incredible amounts of money buying that junk and then even more energy is wasted disposing that junk. Just walk into any WalMart and look at the lineup of cheap consumer goods. As a race of people headed towards extinction we must really sit back and question whether we really need that $9.99 toaster or that $49.99 DVD player. We do not have endless resources, what precious little we have left should be directed at producing things that will help mankind, not bury it in broken garbage. If change is going to happen it has to start with the individual. If you are going to consume, then at least consume things that won’t be in a garbage pile in a few months. Each of us has the power to start to effect change by simply modifying our spending. Buy only what you really need and make sure it is well built and will last. Finally, buy it from someone that supports in a meaningful way, the workers who sell it and the workers that made it. That would be a start.

Dear Percy, in addition to what the others said, may I say: Don't forget child slavery in the cocoa trade.

Phil, you’ve identified a number of symptoms – corporate greed, consumerism, built in obsolescence, resource depletion – but not the causes. I’m going to play devil’s advocate and ask how you envision a redistribution of wealth, from the five percent of the population that controls 90% of the wealth and power, to the 90% of the population seeking “a reasonable life, access to food, medical aid and a decent education”?? And, if you can pull off a Rumplestiltskin and manage to reverse the current trend and turn global capitalism into global socialism, how do you intend to stop the resultant logarithmic increase in environmental destruction (from the corporatisation of China) and the race to the bottom of the energy pile that is threatening our survival under capitalism?

Michael Walker has come close to hitting the nail on the head when he says, “the corporation reflects all the wonderful and not-so-wonderful features of human behavior.” If he is remotely close, the solution is obvious: Identify and change the “not-so-wonderful features”? The greatest threats to human survival are not faulty economic theories, entropy, overpopulation, corporate greed, consumerism or any other ‘ism’. The greatest threat is the fact we don’t understand why we think the way we do. Until we begin to understand the thinking that goes on when we make choices, we will continue along the same path until calamity or catastrophe makes the change in course for us.

We need more companies like American Apparel, made entirely in LA, sweatshop free, and started by a Montreal native. There's about 6 stores here in Montreal now, and more opening all over the world every day. awesome clothes, bright colors, nice fabric, and a very cool concept.

I find it amazing that you wrote (in regard to churches). Bonjean said. “But their values and practices tend to diverge. The key value seems to be money".

What a waste of money this article was! Earth calling Christopher... "Money makes the world go round" - You didn't know?

Not sure why I'm acknowledging a post by someone too chicken to use their real name, but, hello, name withheld? some churches are just as quilty as some corporations at promoting and benefitting greedy practices.

Whose God needs houses of worship? Do we really need megachurches? Lights, glitz, bookstores, lavish budgets and huge physical plants aren't necessary for God to show his favour. What's worse, many of the church's key messages are tainted with dreams of monetary gains, enormous houses and luxury cars that are envied even by world standards. In an extreme form, Christian justifications for greed lead to a gospel of prosperity that inverts the Gospel teaching about camels, needles, rich people and heaven.

Greed, the 2nd of 7 deadly sins

Jesus, Luke 12:15, "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions."

It is recorded in Matthew 10 and 2 Corinthians 11 that the Gospel is freely received and freely given.

What about the many Christians that can’t come and worship God because of all the $distractions$ and $offering buckets$ begging for their $hard earned money$. They don’t get a chance to serve and worship God in the liberty and freedom that Jesus died for. Some churches have put too much burden on the members to fulfill plans for a building and name recognition. The church building prospers while the members who are the real church of God suffer.

Sounds like a corporation to me - the Church of God, Inc.

"The corporation is nothing more than a social contrivance that enables people to cooperate,” Fraser Institute executive director Michael Walker told BC Business magazine. Evidently he never heard of COOPERATIVES, which also allows people to cooperate but in a real way, not just for the benefit of a wealthy few. If Bonjean is sincere he ought to demand the abolition of the "corporation as fictitoous person" and "limited liability" frauds. Furthermore, abolish the basic feudal structure of the corporation - all shareholders ought to be voting shareholders, with one vote each, no matter how many shares they hold.

"The corporation is nothing more than a social contrivance that enables people to cooperate,” Fraser Institute executive director Michael Walker told BC Business magazine. Evidently he never heard of COOPERATIVES, which also allow people to cooperate but in a real way, not just for the benefit of a wealthy few. If Bonjean is sincere he ought to demand the abolition of the "corporation as fictitoous person" and "limited liability" frauds. Furthermore, abolish the basic feudal structure of the corporation - all shareholders ought to be voting shareholders, with one vote each, no matter how many shares they hold.

I went through a stage a few years ago were I bought into the P3 stuff (and took some additional associated BCIT courses). It is just another dream of the innocent. There are no ethics in corporate business or accounting. Only reducing potential liability. Always has been. Don't fool yourself it will change, just learn how to protect yourself by seeing the 'real world' and possibly by promoting alternative structures like Co-ops.

Where the F@#k does the Tyee dig up these loonie writers...probably from the ranks of the NDP or labor or where...in lotusland ? A corporation with a soul, a 'nice' capitalistic corporation...give me a break ..for j.christ's sake...the author ought to move out of Kits or wherever he lives...and get into the real world.

The author is not loony, just naive. This sort of idea (nice capitalism) has actually been around for a long time, and has little to do with the left and more to do with new age liberal types.

What can we do about a country like Nigeria - a major oil exporter and dirt poor at the same time. Or another one is Indonesia - should the western world forgive them their foreign debt $500m to help Tsunami relief or would western banks just relend the money and again have it all find its way back to a swiss bank. Do rich/poor countries need or deserve our help?

"My check of the net indicates that, of the 54 nations which got poorer, almost all were located in Subsaharan Africa, and most had experienced civil war during the period. In other words, these are countries in which private investment is not taking place, and whose misery cannot be attributed to corporations." Au contraire, Percy! The corporations are investing the region with arms of all kinds. The people who are killing each other are definitely NOT using spears only........

The epitomy of good corporate citizenship: http://www.bhopal.net/

Mock "nice capitalism" if you must, and if you have nothing better to suggest. (Except that we as a species must rethink our need for products that......zzzzz.) A public commonweal clause in a corporate charter is as sensible an idea as any to bringing profit-seeking enterprises toward the ideal. It's the sort of real-world thinking that the NDP should be developing and, more importantly, demonstrating.

I have noticed the cliche "real-world" popping-up in several comments, I think "real-world" just refers to the current status-quo in human society in B.C. We should not just accept the current status-quo, if we believe it to be incorrect, by saying that is the "real-world" and we can't do anything to change it. It is not possible for a corporation to be for the public-good, unless every citizen(member of the public) is a shareholder possessing an equal number of shares in that corporation. Corporations always act for shareholders, that is what a corporation is by definition. Every citizen has one vote in government elections. "Government is a corporation" that should theoretically be acting for all citizens(shareholders). Government can only be as good as the individual MLA or MP. We need smarter people serving as MLAs and MPs.

No we don't. The duties of a representative aren't rocket science. They're supposed to service their riding. In terms of votes etc they are bound by party discipline. There's a need for big brains, but it doesn't matter at what level as long as the good ideas are created, debated, and promulgated. (Hey, that rhymed.) As for "real world," it, like any other cliche, is maintained because it has value. In this context, it is meant to indicate practical, workable, electable reform, as opposed to, say, pompous coffee-shop drivel. But, hey. Surely the NDP knows what it is doing. Look at all the success they have had!

Hold on Ron. Show me the dictionary that defines democracy as a group of elected people towing a party line. That is Canada's own warped version. There are other ones out there. And we don't need smarter MPs, as long as they are representing an ignorant populace. In my opinion, the root of the problem lies in the fact that we all sit on our soapboxes, until the time comes to vote with our money, or our comfort. How many of us eat locally produced food, organics, embrace a cradle to cradle philosophy in our consumer habits, live near our work, have a house that is appropriately sized etc. Until North Americans wake up to our lack of sustainability in a meaningful way, we can blame corporations all we want, but that will not solve the problems.

I am for everything that is good and positive. I say, let's all try for a better society and a better world for all of us. If you dont have anything better to suggest. Then dont waste our time, and the web space!

MPs and MLAs are supposed to understand Global-warming(CLIMATOLOGY), the ongoing outbreaks of B.S.E.(ANIMAL BIOLOGY), SARS and other flu viruses (VIROLOGY). We should not be satisfied with our MLAs and MPs unless we get the most qualified people in our country, performing those duties.

No, MPs and MLAs are just supposed to make good decisions in the public interest. They have lots of people to do the thinking and present their research. Once they've listened they make their decision. The best quality in an elected rep is therefore being a good listener, and who wants to serve the public and who leaves his ideology in the parking lot.

From my point of view, the biggest problem with the corporation as it is presently structured is limited liability. Divorcing ownership from legal responsibility sets up an incentive structure that encourages anti-social behavior. Why shouldn't the shareholders of Union Carbide be subject to civil liability in proportion to their stake in the company for a disaster like Bhopal?

It will do no good tinkering with the corporate model until human nature itself is dealt with. But it can't be, so I guess tinkering is all we have. After all, the capacity for dissembling, blame shifting, evasion of responsibility is displayed each and every day far away from corporate boardrooms in all strata and in all models of human co-operation. Look around you in your own home or workplace and ask yourself what people have done or said to get what they wanted. People love the "optics of altruism" while carefully re-reading Machiavelli to guide them through their lives. Corporations don't cause anti-social behaviour, people do.

Can we please make a distinction between the author of the story and the person who was interviewed? I merely reported what was said in the interview. That does not mean that I subscribe to his opinions. Journalists report to the best of our abilities. We do our best to remain objective given that we are also fallible human beings. Let's not kill the messenger.

It's true that all human creations reflect their creators. When corporations became psychotic, they were following the characters and moral codes of those who were most influential in bringing about that change. There was a time when our institutions were more humane, because we were.

But there's a process involved which selects for certain weighted values. It was pointed out above, sort of. Money gives power. Those with a lot of it get to decide more and more. All our values have gradually been replaced by financial values, because those with large amounts of money have gained disproportionate influence in selecting what changes will succeed in society.

And I mean ALL our values. Religious values are now political ones, political convictions are identical to corporate interests. Morals? Civic duties? Professional ethics? Family ties and responsibilities? All subverted to a greater or lesser extent by the pervasive presence which has steadily ratchetted every good and noble quality humanity has struggled to gain over the last five hundred years.

Our culture has become mere mass media, and the corporations who control that have done it. Our towns and cities have decayed and lost the ability to provide us with a place to live and interact, and the corporations who control marketting and distribution of goods have done that. Slavery has been re-established as an institution in the world, and guess who did that? Family life is wrecked, homelessness exploding, we live more and more alone, and the only arguments we hear about any of this from our leaders, the elders of our people, are financial ones. Not one other care or concern is mentioned by any of them.

If I were a doctor, I would suspect a serious pathology at work. A contagious one. We revere the rich, but the possession of enormous amounts of money may be nothing more than the symptom of a disease. A previously unnoticed form of obsessive compulsion that destroys the ability of the sufferer to love people more than things, or to see the costs that must be paid for his excesses by everyone he touches.

If this observation has any validity, then the cure must be applied massively and universally. When an institution, be it government or private enterprise malfunctions and does harm to humans or their societies, then they must be treated. They must be made to personally repair the damages they do. If a company commits murder by intent or negligence, as in Bhophal, or the African Warlorderies the heads of the firm should be liable. Tried and punished like any criminal. The main shareholders who voted for the policy that causes damage must be liable to civil damages. Arms dealers no less than others.

American objections must be set aside, and the rule of law established in the world, complete with an enforcement arm that has the power to cross borders and extradite criminals, a Court system to provide due process, and the ability to enforce it's orders and penalties.

Only by re-establishing a proper order of values among the nations and people of the world can we ever hope to cure this terrible delusion that has gripped us and changed us into this thing we are becoming.

oGd! Somebody here quoted Michael Walker, as if he ever said anything remotely valid or vaulable. The Fraser Instapuke is a rich man's round table discussion over cocktails. Some of theo other nonsense coining our of Walker, et al, was that that ozone was rebuilding, that there is no global warming and "tax free" day--piles of BS. Someone else said that American Apparel was an example of a good company! American Apparel is featured on this week's Maquila network, on its sweatshop alert. Values? Yes, more people need them--especially those that shop at Wal-Mart. The only way to make corporations and their greedy shareholders, investors, owners and CEOs behave is to make them behave by force. Where is that Guillotine, anyway?

i know it is fun to argue, but until 6 billion+ people can all agree to be responsible to each other and our environment... no amount of good ideas will change a damn thing. it makes me sick to be so cynical, but we are all the problem. we need to look at ourselves, our decsions, and actions. making people aware of the power each individual has to effectively slow the global suicide is more important than blaming and ranting. i know it is total BS to think that any significant number of people would start to become responsible, but that is the only way to slow our fall.

Dear Chris. You know, I'm not so sure you're right about that 6 billion + bit. For a long time in China there's been a kind of view of things that hold that all things flow from the emperor. If the emperor is wise and virtuous, the people flourish and all is well. If he's petty, greedy or mean. then society runs that way. I think there's something to that.

I don't mean emperors exactly, but I do mean those who decide; the leaders, whoever they are and however they organise themselves.

Take car companies. When they make small efficient cars, people drive small efficient cars, when they make fat gas guzzlers likewise. I know they claim to be demand driven, but that's hooey. Supply and demand are rigidly linked. The demand is for transportation, and whatever form that is offered in will be the form we use. Oil companies ditto. We burn oil because we have to. That decision is made by industry leaders. Water contains hydrogen to burn and almost enough oxygen to burn it, producing no pollution, and no profits for Exxon. The pollution we live in is a direct reflection of the state of the 'emperor's' soul.

It's just wrong to try to blame that on the poor schlub who's driving to work in the morning.She has to work, to feed and clothe her family, and will do whatever she's offered in order to fulfil her needs. To change it, our leaders have to decide to change it. Then the people will follow, and not before.

You're so often right, Bailey ... and I think you're right on the principle of needing leadership to get a province heading in the right direction. But ...

Remember the Agricultural Land Act? B.C. Insurance Corp? You'd have thought those two far-sighted pieces of legislated leadership heralded the 2nd crucifixion of Christ. But maybe British Columbians have grown up a bit since then?