The Corporation

What Hacker News says

1. akarmaJan 2021
   Highly recommend The Corporation by Joel Bakan.

   It digs into how corporations are essentially psychopaths — they put profit first, and if they appear to be good or generous, it's only because the money it takes to cultivate that image is going to be a net benefit to them.

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2. golemotronAug 2019
   It's a nice statement but as long as shareholders can sue corporations for not maximizing value regardless of externalities, the purpose of a corporation is defined de facto rather than de jure.

   Joel Bakan's book The Corporation (and the documentary of the same name) lay out this case well.

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3. mr_overallsSep 2017
   There's a fascinating book by Joel Bakan called The Corporation, which applies the DSM criteria for diagnosis of mental illness to the modern corporation. It concludes that the modern corporation is functionally equivalent to a psychopath (even created that way by law) - an entity whose destructive behavior, if unchecked, leads to scandal and ruin.

   Based on the stories I've heard about Oracle and Elison, I've often thought that Bakan might have had an inside informant at the company.

   https://www.amazon.com/Corporation-Pathological-Pursuit-Prof...

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4. iuguyMay 2013
   During the summer I go on holiday to a remote island in the mediterranean where I sit on my patio atop a hill overlooking the sea and read for about a week. The only electronic devices I have are my e-book reader and a charger. Here's some of the best summer reading I've gone through:

   The Painted Bird - Jerzy Kosinski - http://www.amazon.com/Painted-Bird-Jerzy-Kosinski/dp/0802134...

   A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini - http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Splendid-Suns-Khaled-Hosseini...

   Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - http://www.amazon.com/Brave-World-P-S-Aldous-Huxley/dp/00617...

   Burmese Days - George Orwell - http://www.amazon.com/Burmese-Days-Novel-George-Orwell/dp/01...

   The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway - http://www.amazon.com/Sun-Also-Rises-Ernest-Hemingway/dp/074...

   Catch 22 - Joe Heller - http://www.amazon.com/Catch-22-50th-Anniversary-Joseph-Helle...

   The Road - Cormac McCarthy - http://www.amazon.com/Road-Oprahs-Book-Club/dp/0307387895

   To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee - http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Mockingbird-Harper-Lee/dp/0446310...

   The Catcher In The Rye - J.D. Salinger - http://www.amazon.com/Catcher-Rye-J-D-Salinger/dp/0316769487

   For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway - http://www.amazon.com/Whom-Bell-Tolls-Ernest-Hemingway/dp/06...

   For non-fiction it really depends on what you're looking for but I really enjoyed Joel Bakan's The Corporation and Mark Thomas' As Used On The Famous Nelson Mandela.

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5. iuguyFeb 2013
   Incidentally the article references a Book and Documentary both called "The Corporation" by Joel Bakan. The book[1] is an excellent read and the documentary[2] is also worth a watch, free on archive.org.

   [1] - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corporation-Pathological-Pursuit-Pro...

   [2] - http://archive.org/details/The_Corporation_

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6. iuguyOct 2010
   If you want to see the arguments in black text on white paper, you could do worse than buy the book, The Corporation - by Joel Bakan.

   It's a great read. I thought the film was very good.

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