What do you think about Disney?

[mike_v_s]

Do corporations have a moral responsibility to improve the lot of mankind in general? In addition to their shareholders, customers and employees? As members of the human family (allegedly ), I believe they do - same as anyone else...

Who gets to decide what is considered an improvement? It could be argued that the Disney version of these tales IS the improvement and that they deserve just compensation for sanitizing and producing what the rest of the society was either not motivated or not talented enough to do themselves. That being the case, Disney isn't evil and should in fact be praised and thanked for doing more to improve our society than most corporations. It's all in the eye of the beholder.

What about the "quality from crap" portion of your post I deleted? Eye of the beholder. Great on paper, not so useful in practice.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled lamenting.

Mike

 

[hbarcat]

Ah, the old "social responsibility vs. libertarian" conundrum...

Do corporations have a moral responsibility to improve the lot of mankind in general? In addition to their shareholders, customers and employees? As members of the human family (allegedly ), I believe they do - same as anyone else...

Does that mean they should be responsible for taking care of us, educating our children, etc.? Of course not. Ultimately, we're each responsible for taking care of ourselves, and our own children. Hence the vital importance of education - to help create informed and discriminating consumers, and good critical thinkers with refined tastes, who can discern quality from crap.

In other words, everyone shares a certain portion of moral responsibility to the collective good - individuals as well as institutions (i.e. corporations, governments, etc.) - not just to themselves...

MM

Interesting points. I very much value the libertarian ideology as it applies to a topic like this. I also think that part of that is maintaining a willingness to listen to opinions such as this that criticize Disney Co as an organization that is harmful to society because it displaces more positive and meaningful values such as religion. But I reserve the right to dismiss such ideas as rubbish after listening to them.

I don't mind at all when individuals simply express an opinion of what legal activities are moral or immoral. Or what we should and should not be doing with our spare time and where we should or should not be spending our entertainment money. As long as it stays just an opinion.

 

[Mystic Michael]

Who gets to decide what is considered an improvement? It could be argued that the Disney version of these tales IS the improvement and that they deserve just compensation for sanitizing and producing what the rest of the society was either not motivated or not talented enough to do themselves. That being the case, Disney isn't evil and should in fact be praised and thanked for doing more to improve our society than most corporations. It's all in the eye of the beholder.

What about the "quality from crap" portion of your post I deleted? Eye of the beholder. Great on paper, not so useful in practice.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled lamenting.

Mike

Clearly we each get to decide those issues for ourselves. Hence my remarks about the importance of education which, in addition to preparing us for jobs and careers, should be helping to inform and refine our aesthetic, cultural, ethical, moral and even spiritual sensibilities.

In a market-based economy such as exists in the industrialized world, a truly educated populace is thus the best assurance of high standards of quality in any product or service - such that consumer demand would prefer it to anything substandard, all other things being equal.

Of course, this is only the ideal and doesn't assume consumer apathy or laziness. Nor does it consider criminal issues such as corporate fraud - which is where government regulation ought to come in...

MM

 

[hbarcat]

Clearly we each get to decide those issues for ourselves. Hence my remarks about the importance of education which, in addition to preparing us for jobs and careers, should be helping to inform and refine our aesthetic, cultural, ethical, moral and even spiritual sensibilities.

In a market-based economy such as exists in the industrialized world, a truly educated populace is thus the best assurance of high standards of quality in any product or service - such that consumer demand would prefer it to anything substandard, all other things being equal.

Of course, this is only the ideal and doesn't assume consumer apathy or laziness. Nor does it consider criminal issues such as corporate fraud - which is where government regulation ought to come in...

MM

Good post.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

If consumer demand is the only thing that matters, one could say the very same thing about the crystal meth trade...

MM

Have you ever seen the movie "Traffic"? Invalid Link Removed

There is a really great line from the leader of the drug cartel (iirc) in that movie that goes something like "if your people [americans in this case] didn't want drugs, I would be out of business". Reworded: "If there was no demand for [insert product] there would be no one making it".

That's pretty much how economy works. So, no more need to about it. Disney, drugs, pr0n, toys, video games, its all the same when it comes to supply and demand.

I couldn't find the exact quote, but heres another example that could easily be reworded to work for Disney, or prolly every other corporate entity:

"Ok, right now, all over this great nation of ours, 'hundred thousand white people from the suburbs are cruisin' around downtown asking every black person they see "You got any drugs? You know where I can score some drugs?" *Think* about the effect that that has on the psyche of a black person, on their possibilities. I... God I guarantee you bring a hundred thousand black people into your neighborhood, into ****in' Indian Hills, and they're asking every white person they see "You got any drugs? You know where I can score some drugs?", within a *day* everyone would be selling. Your friends. Their kids. Here's why: it's an unbeatable market force man. It's a three-hundred percent markup value. You can go out on the street and make five-hundred dollars in two hours, come back and do whatever you want to do with the rest of your day and, I'm sorry, you're telling me that... you're telling me that white people would still be going to law school?"

 

[mike_v_s]

Clearly we each get to decide those issues for ourselves. Hence my remarks about the importance of education which, in addition to preparing us for jobs and careers, should be helping to inform and refine our aesthetic, cultural, ethical, moral and even spiritual sensibilities.

In a market-based economy such as exists in the industrialized world, a truly educated populace is thus the best assurance of high standards of quality in any product or service - such that consumer demand would prefer it to anything substandard, all other things being equal.

Of course, this is only the ideal and doesn't assume consumer apathy or laziness. Nor does it consider criminal issues such as corporate fraud - which is where government regulation ought to come in...

MM

I'm not sure how you are attempting to relate this to the original post. I mean, I could apply what you've said to the idea put forward and extrapolate any number of points but, rather than respond to generics....what direction are you going in?

I don't necessarily disagree with anything in particular (conundrum of who educates the masses as to what is "better" or an "improvement" aside), and hbarcat is definitely happy about your post, I'm just curious as to where it's going.

Mike

 

[Jeff Martinez]

That's good, then you missed my poo post.

I never miss a poo post.