Is Poverty a Corporation Concern?
Poverty is a significant concern for all levels of society, large and small, in the United States and abroad. The question is: is it too much of a corporation concern? As corporations increasingly take over the market, many nations are experiencing poverty inequality. Corporations often pay low wages while collecting large profits on products they sell in wealthy communities and pocketing the profits in poorer neighborhoods. This creates a cycle that can lead to prolonged periods of poverty for some populations. In this article, Dr. Jordan Sudberg examines whether or not corporations should be held accountable for creating poverty from their corporate greediness or whether it is more important to focus on redistribution at an individual level instead of decreasing corporate power and targeting corporations for reform when necessary.
According to Dr. Sudberg, corporations can positively impact poverty by ensuring that their employees are paid fairly and that their products are manufactured under safe labor and environmental standards. Corporations can also contribute to alleviating poverty by paying for the cost of education for poor children, as this is a precious social investment. In addition, corporations should increase workers’ mobility to reduce long-term unemployment within U.S. communities.
Making good profits is not bad, but how those profits are made is essential. Corporations should only take the necessary amount of profit for long-term sustainability, and the company and its basing nation should be socially responsible by investing in the well-being of their employees.
Dr. Jordan Sudberg believes that increasing corporate social responsibility will help decrease poverty because poverty occurs in part from corporations paying people less than they are worth or denying them fundamental rights to make good profits for themselves and their investors. It may be true that poverty is only partially corporate responsibility. Still, without companies and citizens working together, more people will be left without jobs and have less money to spend. Poverty is socially based, but corporations can help by spending profits on those who need it most.
Corporations can only help a community if they are socially responsible in their dealings with their employees, communities, and other nations. Corporations can contribute to the community by paying an optimum wage, which can help with the high crime rate in some communities. If a company is not paying its employees a living wage, they are more likely to turn to other ways to make ends meet, such as selling drugs or their bodies.
In the long term, if corporations pay employees the correct salary, it can help decrease poverty and make communities safer.
In conclusion, if corporations were more socially responsible, then it could positively impact poverty at an individual and community level. Corporations should sell products with fair labor and environmental standards, provide employees with safe working conditions, and invest in education. Taxpayers usually pay the bill when it comes to replacing faulty police equipment. Corporations should also be held accountable for spending their profits on the citizens they profit from.
In the United States alone, over 25% of people are living near or below the poverty line. Poverty is a problem that exists both in developed and developing countries across the world. Corporations and companies operating in both these groups of countries often encounter the problems of poverty on many different levels.