Voluntad...

The other day I was sitting in Starbucks with Rashelle and somehow we fell on the topic of big business (perhaps our location was what prompted this discussion :P). I often get frustrated when talking about the banality of big cooperations in Latin America. It strikes a chord in me when people speak of capitalism as if it is some evil entity that takes advantage of the poor. I will be the first to admit that capitalism has its faults...obviously to have the rich, there will always be the poor to support them. However, I would just like to pick a bone right not that has been irritating me for a while. We look at big business and often blame the problems of Latin America on such things as foreign investment which takes capital out of the country, etc. For me, big businesses are not the problem. Well, perhaps they are the problem, I just hate when people blame "corperations" for doing what corporations do. Businesses, at least in my opinion, are like machines...their purpose is to make a profit in whatever way possible. It's the point of their existence, it's integral to their being. We can complain and point fingers and say that big business takes advantage of/exploits/deprives lower classes/destroys small businesses, etc, but I feel that to some extent that's similar to accusing a wall of being a wall. You don't stand there and complain that a wall is tall/flat/hard/impenetrable, because the wall doesn't care. And why should it? It's goal as a wall is to to keep some things out and others in--it wouldn't be true to its nature if it didn't do this. Or perhaps, less abstractly, it's like accusing a leopard of killing and eating smaller animals. You don't stand there and tell a leapard not to be hungry. Of course it's going to look for food and eat other animals; that's it's nature. It's most primal goal is to survive. You can point your finger all you want, but that's not going to turn a leopard into a guinea pig. It's pointless to accuse something of being what it is. It just is. Businesses have a purpose: to maximize profits, of course they're going to behave accordingly, whether it means creating banana republics or investing in maquiladoras because the labor is cheaper.

On the other hand, if we look at big business not as a machine or as an entity, but as a conglomeration of people with agency and free will and autonomy, then maybe we can start asking for accountability. Because really, who is responsible for the welfare of humans but humans themselves? Sure, businesses are organisms with goals, but these impersonal, faceless businesses are made up of people with names and faces and "voluntad." What is the point of humanity if we don't feel some sense of accountability and empathy towards others?