Corporate Freedom

by Adam Cytrynbaum

Each individual is a free person. Any free person deserves the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, among other things. Most, at least in the free world, consider these facts to be self-evident, and don't argue. However, there are many people who attempt to use force in order to infringe upon these rights. Many believe that only they know what is best for others, and therefore are justified in using force to strip others of their rights.

There are those that argue that Corporations are in control of the world and are using this control to infringe upon the rights of others. They use indecisive terms like "globalization" and "exploitation", and fight against free trade and other things. What they fail to realize is that corporations are made up of people, who deserve the same rights as anyone else, and that corporations do not really have any actual power of coercion.

The purpose of a corporation is simple. It attempts to accumulate money by making voluntary agreements with other people. When you see a shirt made by a corporation in a store, you can either buy the shirt, and thereby enter a voluntary agreement with the corporation, or you can not. If you choose not to, then you don't have the shirt. Nowhere are you forced to buy the shirt.

Now this corporation makes their shirts in a poor third world country. They offer extremely low wages for hours and hours of hard labour. Many people would consider this a raw deal for the workers in this country. However, nowhere are the workers forced to enter this voluntary agreement. They are not required by anyone to work in this factory. They can choose to, and accept their meager salaries, or they can choose not to, and attempt to find the money to live elsewhere. Nowhere are the corporations using any force.

Then come the anti-corporate movements. They are against "exploitation". They tell the corporation that it’s wrong to offer such meager wages. They then lobby the government, and the government forces the corporation to offer higher wages. It then ceases to become cost-efficient to keep factories in third world countries, and the corporation must move its factory closer to its market to reduce costs. It then pays higher wages to people in rich countries, and still makes a profit. However, the poor people in the poor countries suffer even more, because they have no way of making even the meager salaries they used to get.

Hence, you have the corporations, making a profit by entering voluntary agreements with other people, are removed of their rights by force. Nowhere did the corporations force anyone else to do things. If you don’t like the corporation’s treatment of its workers, then don’t buy their product. If they are the only ones who make said product, then start your own company and offer the same product, and pay your workers more. Nothing is stopping you. Hell, you can even make a better product. If it’s truly better, you might even make a profit.