Need Economics help!!?

Question

For the life of me, i cannot understand this question. if someone could put it in lamens terms that would be great.

"in the very real sense the economy of the United States is 'corporate capitalism'; The increasing concentration of economic power in the hands of a relatively few giant firms is making the corporation a very powerful, perhaps even dominating force in our society. Please discuss just who the corporation represents?

any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Well, theoretically, a corporation is supposed to represent its shareholders. In practice, cororpations are often run for the benefit of those who run them (the management). This is called agency conflict. Shareholders are many and far apart, so management can run things the way they want them run, which often involves exorbitant compensation, nepotism, self-dealing, payoffs to politicians, etc.

Answer 2

Hi! I'm an economics student in Mauritius.

The corporation is the total of all private firms. They are directly concerned with making profit. That is their only aim. The owners are shareholders. For example, big American corporations are Wal Mart, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Mc Donald's, KFC and all those. With time, these corporations have entered everyone's routine life. Society is accepting the services of all these corporations and helps them in making so large profits. They are powerful because they are all in oligopolistic markets(with few very large firms). They fight day by day through product differentiation. They survive owing to society, which allows them to earn profits by buying their products. That's all that i can say to u for now. Please contact me later if u need some help with economics. I like that subject!

Answer 3

As contrasted with the other two major forms of business ownership, the sole proprietorship and the partnership, the corporation is distinguished by a number of characteristics that make it a more flexible instrument for large-scale economic activity, particularly for the purpose of raising large sums of capital investment. Chief among these features are: (1) limited liability, meaning that capital suppliers are not subject to losses greater than the amount of their investment; (2) transferability of shares, whereby rights in the enterprise may be transferred readily from one investor to another without reconstituting the organization under law; (3) juridical personality, meaning that the corporation itself as a fictive “person” has legal standing and may thus sue and be sued, may make contracts, and may hold property in a common name; and (4) indefinite duration, whereby the life of the corporation may extend beyond the participation of any of its incorporators. The owners of the corporation in a legal sense are the shareholders, who purchase with their investment of capital a share in the proceeds of the enterprise and who are nominally entitled to a measure of control over the financial management of the corporation.

Answer 4

the corporation represents those who will directly profit from the activities of it. (usually the shareholders). However it will also represent any groups, which it can benefit from representing. For example, Wal-Mart, may help by representing farmers to the American government when lobbying for larger subsidies on crops, because this will help keep crop prices low, which in addition to helping farmers, will help walmart, as they will not need to pay as much for the goods they buy (and then sell on to the public). this means that they can either increase profit margins, cut the prices they charge to the public (to increase sales), or use a combination of the two.

Answer 5

IMHO, the people who comprise it and benefit from it. In essence, pretty much everybody.

You work for it, you have a job and money.

If you buy goods or services from it, you choose to buy goods or services because they provide a good or service that is either better or cheaper than anyone else.

If you are a stock holder, you provided money for them to start up and earn a return on your investment.

Still, I think this question is poorly worded and sounds almost like a Rorschach inkblot test. Maybe they just want you to write about what YOU think the answer is so they get a general idea how much you know.

Answer 6

Honestly, the way the question is written, it tells me that your economics teacher or professor is probably a left-wing liberal. It probably won't help your grade to tell him or her that the "corporation" represents it's shareholders, which in most cases means retirement funds of ordinary Americans like you and I. But that's the truth.