Do Corporations need regulations?

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?gI hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.?h
Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US president 1801-1809

During the eighteenth century, corporations had fewer powers that we do now. They did not have limited liability. They were chartered for a limited period of time, (10 or 20 years), and for a specific public purpose only, such as building a bridge. Corporations were viewed differently in early times. They were thought to be good ways to serve the public good. But over the time, people forgot that corporations are starting to get so powerful and that they need to be strongly controlled. Also, corporations began to gain more power than the wealthy elite. Corporations like the East India Company and the Hudson Bay Company had been the rulers of America. So when the constitution was written, corporations were left out of the Constitution. From the past, corporations had been looking for a way to control state regulation and taxation. They did, by being able to control it by having the federal government say you can't discriminate, when discrimination meant any rule that applied just to corporations, such as railroads. Because Corporations cannot be trusted to voluntarily protect the environment, they require regulation.

Whenever we fight for clean drinking water, or clean air, or a safe workplace, we are likely to find a corporation on the other side of the issue. The goal of a corporation is, first, to survive, and, second, to return a profit to its shareholders, not to mention for money and if the air has to be fouled to accomplish these goals, then the air will be fouled. Meaning, the corporations will do anything to keep these goals even if it means that they have to cause pollution or some issues. Pollution is one of the problems by the corporations that affect us. The Business Council for Sustainable Development thinks of this as ?gToday, for instance, the earth's atmosphere is providing the valuable service of acting as a dump for pollutants; those enjoying this service rarely pay a reasonable price for it,". This is an example of corporations ?gexternalizing?h their costs. By using the air as a free dump, corporations are able to get away with paying the costs for waste disposal to the people while they prof...

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...hose that appear to cover everything. Therefore these corporations cannot be trusted voluntarily. Regulations were supposed to make these corporations accountable but instead the corporations have used these regulations as a shield against accountability.
So according to the characteristics of a ?gglobal issue?h the problem of corporations abusing power and needing regulation is indeed a ?gglobal issue?h. It affects a lot of people, it affects other issues (pollution etc...), it happens all over the world, and this problem is persistent and can?ft be solved alone. However, are the corporations totally bad? After all, we created the corporations to help us and it is our public interest that have gone wild because of our democratic freedom and changed into some international monsters of greed that now dominate the world. The corporations we see are the result of building convenience to the people. These corporations are simply one of the steps to grow. The corporation is not responsible for all this harm. The corporations are main things that will improve economy for better or worse.
Corporations have taken over the government and turned it against its own people."
Ralph Nader

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