The Case for Resigning from Corporate Greed IT Jobs

With growing income equality, the majority of people no longer have to work for the big corporations in order to have a good standard of living. The average worker no longer needs to work for one of these companies in order to live a decent life. It’s so rare for people to say this about corporate greed that it can be easy to take it for granted. That being said, the role of corporations in society has changed. For many years, corporations were a neutral force in society. Now, they are an unethical force that continues to grow. If we continue to work for these companies and let them continue to grow without limits, we will continue to see the same levels of inequality, problems in the world, and loss of privacy as we see today. Therefore, we need to reconsider our involvement with corporations to ensure that we are going to the right ends. Let’s take a look at the arguments for and against resigning from corporate greed.

Common Arguments For Resigning From Corporate Greed

Corporations are highly unpopular among the public. Only 18% of the public trust corporations to do what is in the best interests of the country. It’s safe to say that a large portion of the population does not trust corporations to do the right thing. It’s not hard to understand why this is. Corporate greed has created numerous problems in society over the years. From the Gulf Oil Spill to the opioid crisis, corporations have caused the majority of these problems. It’s time to stop letting corporations remain unchecked.

Workers don’t need to be employed by a corporate giant in order to have a good life. Plenty of jobs do not require working for a corporation. If you have an interest in helping people, nonprofit work, government work, teaching, running a business, or any other occupation, you don’t need to work for a giant corporation to do it. Those working for giant corporations are also not guaranteed a good life. Sure, many people can make good money working for a corporation. However, given the value on profits over good will, the constant strain of office politics by self-serving nefarious leeches make extracting quality out of a corporate job ever more challenging.

Corporations Are No Longer Trustworthy

Corporations have become a massive threat to our democracy and the privacy of the citizens. Corporations have begun to pursue profits at the expense of the public. The average citizen has virtually no control over what a corporation does with their data. Corporations are also allowed to buy and sell politicians. Since the public cannot vote on who owns their politicians, it is increasingly dangerous to allow corporations to hold so much political power. Corporations are also no longer serving the purpose they were supposed to. Before corporations were established in America, the primary purpose was to serve as a way to protect investors. Today, the vast majority of corporations are not providing a return on investment. Corporations have become a way to provide a steady income for people by letting them work for a company without having to be in a location that serves the customer.

Privacy Is Losing

Another major problem with corporate greed is the loss of privacy. When we sign up for a company like Facebook, we give them access to our data and allow them to use it as they please. This includes allowing them to sell our information to other companies or allow advertisers to target our data. Although Facebook made changes and now says they will protect privacy, they do not have a good track record with it. Facebook also has a poor track record when it comes to protecting the privacy of users. There have been numerous instances where they have had major security issues and have been slow to fix them. Facebook is also not the only company taking advantage of users’ data. The ways we are losing privacy are numerous and continuing to grow.

The World's Wealth Is Losing

Another major problem with corporate greed is the loss of the world’s wealth. There is a good chance that you have read about how technology has dramatically changed society. One of the most common changes you hear about is the growing gap between rich and poor which has corporate greed the main culprit. Corporations have shifted their focus from providing products to providing services.

As the economy shifted away from goods and towards services, the value of goods dropped dramatically. This allowed corporations to begin outsourcing jobs overseas and pay people less than what was needed to survive. Corporations are also able to purchase politicians. They have been able to completely control political agendas. The biggest example of this is the opioid crisis. Big pharmaceutical companies created opioids as a way to profit off of pain medications. When it became apparent that there was a problem with the opioid epidemic, the government passed a law requiring opioids to be included in drug regulations. Big pharmaceutical companies are the only reason the opioid crisis is so big and profitable.

The Great Resignation Is The Start

As corporations face labor shortages and retention problems, it can only be somewhat fulfilling to see the will of the people unite and demand changes in priorities and ultimately redefine the corporation's reason for being. Perhaps we should start by redefining what a corporation's primary purpose should be, something similar to Abraham Maslow's 'Hierarchy Of Needs' for the individual, using a blueprint taken from 'Good Profit' by Charles Koch of Koch Industries where he states:

"Good profit results from products and services that customers vote for freely with their dollars, products that improve people's lives. It results from a culture where employees are empowered to act entrepreneurially to discover customers' preferences and the best ways to satisfy them. Good profit is what follows when long-term value is created for customers, employees, shareholders, and society."

We hear corporations all the time proclaim their greatest asset is their people, if that be the case let's let actions speak louder than words and invest in people and enable self-actualization to the point where it is contagious and used as the benchmark for excellence instead of dirty profits.

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