On the Evil of Corporations

by | Mar 8, 2014 | Articles

I was walking up to Starbucks the other day and I was thinking about something for work – my perpetual state – and I had some leftist rant I’d just read in my mind. I’d read an article and one of the standard, throwaway memes of the author was that “corporations” are “evil” and all about profit, greed, etc. Now, I’ve worked for the government most of my adult life – I was a Marine Officer, either active (12 years) or Reserve (10+) from when I started college on an ROTC scholarship at the age of 17; however, after leaving active duty about 10 years ago, I’ve had a number of jobs in the “private sector,” as its euphemistically called, including my current gig, hopefully my last, working as a corporate attorney. So, in the current political-speak, I’ve “sold out” and become about as “corporate” as you can get.

Oddly enough, I’ve got the best job I’ve ever had, bar none, and I work for the coolest fuc$!#ing company in the world (CrossFit, Inc.), as far as I can tell.

I had the good fortune to come on as one of the “early adopters,” though not the earliest, by any stretch. I’ve been doing CrossFit for over 8 years and working for them for 5+ for a check – (I did a good bit unpaid for almost a year). That view means that I’ve seen our “corporation” grow from a dozen or so full-time employees when I came on, to several hundred – in 5 years. That’s to say nothing of the larger community that’s been created by “replicated businesses” – our licensed Affiliates – who now number almost 10,000. When I was an Affiliate owner (the original CrossFit Veritas, in RI) in 2008, I think we had a few hundred around the world.

When I hear people rail against “corporations” and “big business,” I’m honest enough to want to look into their concerns. I’ve had my run-ins with big business: credit card companies, insurance companies, large banks, hospital chains, Radio Shack, DirecTV, and government – (I’ll come back to that last one later). You name it and I’ve been customer of or had some transaction with all kinds of big business. I suspect I’m like a massive majority of Americans in all walks of life. I shop at WalMart, the Apple Store (judiciously), Barnes and Noble, and I love to treat myself to a Ruth’s Chris steak once a quarter or so. My experiences have ranged from sublime to horrific (though nothing quite so bad as the DMV or government bureaucracy experience – try getting a gun permit in Weymouth, Massachusetts, for example, and then come talk to me).

Here’s the funny thing, though, while BIG Business seems ubiquitous, it’s really an appearance, a confirmation bias. Last year’s statistics from your government – currently headed by a guy who can’t say enough bad things about business – has this as the first major sentence on its page:

About three quarters of all U.S. business firms have no payroll. Most are self-employed persons operating unincorporated businesses, and may or may not be the owner’s principal source of income. Because nonemployers account for only about 3.4 percent of business receipts, they are not included in most business statistics, for example, most reports from the Economic Census.”

http://www.census.gov/econ/smallbus.html 

So, as a starting point, 3.4% of all US business receipts come from what I’ll “sole-proprietorships,” though I don’t use it in the strict legal meaning of the word. The census calls them “non-employers,” but I don’t like the term and what it connotes. These are people doing business for themselves. They’re as employed as anyone, probably more so than most (Confession: I say this having been in solo practice, completely solo practice, just me and my laptop.)

Next piece of crucial data (and let’s assume the statistical validity of this stuff for the moment), there are 5,930,132 “employer firms” in all of the US, covering some 7.6 million ‘establishments.’ They tally up $5.13 TRILLION (yes, with a tr-) in annual payroll.

Now here’s the foot-stomping part: Of those roughly 6 million “employer firms”, 3.62 million have 0-4 employees. 1.06 million have 5-9 employees, and 667,000 have 10-19 employees. A little back-of-the-envelope math tells me that 5.35 million of the 5.9 million firms have less than 20 employees. Add in the other 562,000 firms going up to 99 employees and it makes it 5.87 million out of 5.90 million “employer firms” in all of the United States employ less than 100 people.

I was stunned when I read that…. Then I opened my eyes.

…..You know how when you buy a new car (or even a used one) of a certain make or model and you suddenly start seeing those fucking things everywhere? Even in the same color and accessory package? I never noticed the Chevy Cobalt… until I bought my daughters one to share. Then I was constantly mistaking every silver Cobalt for my daughter’s “Franklin” and seeing them everywhere on the road, in every color, accessory, features, etc.
So as I was walking into Starbucks with all of this data kicking around in my head – and the reporter’s comments about “evil business” in my head – I started noticing that to either side of the Starbucks was a small business: a dry cleaner’s (small, gotta be family owned), a card shop (not Hallmark), a sandwich shop in the corner of the plaza, some large chain stores to be sure: a Rite Aid, a Wells Fargo, a Ralph’s groceries… but there, a dentist (private practice), an art shop, a kids novelty toy store, a smaller local credit union…
Suddenly, I wasn’t seeing as much corporate “evil” and “greed” around me in this den of commercialism – the strip mall – that dots much of the suburban American landscape.
So, when I hear our President and his party railing about economic policies designed to constrain the poor ethics of “business”, I start asking myself, what’s really going on here? Are we passing laws, tax policies – and moral judgments – about 5.87MM that are really intended for just 30,000 “big” businesses?
Final thought. Corporations are nothing more than voluntary associations of people. I chose – and choose – to work for CrossFit, Inc. – and associate myself with its corporate ethos, philosophy, and product/service because the people there are my best friends in the world. I love them all deeply, dearly, every last employee. We all believe in what we do, even if we all don’t agree on every decision. It is, to be sure, easier for me to wake up than it is for most people.
Many of my non-CF friends work where they do by accident, incident, necessity. Many hate their bosses, middle management, bureaucracy, their daily routine, cubicle life, and have to do it to “make ends meet” (and that’s a post for another time). I get that. Adult life is filled with tough choices, but those are still choices. (I’ll leave a discussion about the lack of choices the poor face – as if I’m unfamiliar with the concept – for another time.That’s a different thought about government policies, the good and the bad, and the “War on Poverty.”)
Look around before you start spouting off about “evil” corporations. Most of those people are your neighbors and friends, who work at small businesses, and are what have fueled this country’s greatness since (and even before) its creation.