General Welfare and Corporate Greed

The desire of corporations to maximize profits creates conflict with the general welfare of the nation at large.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations or reading.

I completely agree with the stated opinion.

The desire to maximize profits has another name. Greed. And corporate greed creates conflict with the general welfare of the nation at large.

The biggest example of this phenomenon is the current financial crisis affecting the entire world. It was the relentless "efforts" by the banking institutions to maximize profit on cost of sub-prime lending that led to the complete collapse of the financial system. The very fact that they lended to people who they knew would not be able to pay back the debt reeks of malicious exploitation.  Had they been more responsible, the world could have been saved from a lot of agony. It is one clear example of how corporate greed has pushed not only  one nation but the entire world into recession.

Corporate greed is a simple case of corporate mathematics: general welfare is not always conducive for profit. Hence, if there are no anti-competition laws then corporates collude to form cartels, drive down wages and fleece the end user all in the name of maximizing profit. So much for the general welfare.

Other times this greed is seen as an "unfortunate consequence" of globalization. The outsourcing spree that has seen umpteen families loose livelihood in US is a good example. When the corporations had to choose between general welfare and profits, the choice did not seem that difficult. Profit it was and profit it will always be. As some writer rightly said, a corporate has no soul to be damned.

Concluding, I strongly support the stated opinion. Presence of anti-competition laws, outsourcing and the current financial crisis are a clear evidence that this is indeed the case. It seems that it will be quite some time before social responsibility is seen as second nature to corporations.