GMAT Essays (AWA)

The desire of corporations to maximize profits creates conflict with the general welfare of the nation at large

Whether the goal of maximizing profits is in conflit with the general welfare depends on the way companies achieve the first and the definition of the latter. Many people believe that big and profitable companies are the source of all evil. I believe the opposite is the case for several reasons.

To begin with - it is true that big corporations usually earn great profits. It is unreasonable to assume that this money is not being put to gut use. In general, companies earn profits and then disperse them throuout the society - be it in higher salaries or bigger purchases. They are workhorses of the whole business market. Secondly - the more money the company makes, the more jobs it creates. It is obvious that by creating more employment opportunities and lowetring the unemployment rate, companies contribute to the well-being of the nation and the society. What many people fail to recognize is the fact, that, companies, while making more money, also pay more in taxes. And it is from their taxes that the nation can afford to do, what would not be possible without them.

Moreover - corporations, through their funding research, are also responsible for the technical development. During the last 20 years, private companies made more than half of technical breakthroughs in technology and science. Our lives without cell phones or aspirin would surely be more complicated. But the input of companies to further human development does not stop there. In many instances big corporations funded academic and scholarship research, putting a lot of the money they made into a good use.

Finally - the more money company earn, the more it can do with it. It is knows as the scale effect, where big corporations can fuel the change more effectively, because they can simply afford it. Whether it onvolves helping the poor or being at the forefront of many green and sustainable inititives, many corporations set a different level of social and public responsibility. One example that comes to mind is Exxon, the energy company, which does earn a lot of money on oil and other hydrocarbons, and which spent more than a billion dollars last year on the development of more economically-friendly power sources.

To sum it up - it is a lot easier to make a statement, that desire to earn more money does not serve the society, than to prove it. Many corporations do exactly the opposite to the issue statement and are very effective in their actions. Lastly, lets not forget that companies in themselves are not bad. It all depends on the people who work for them.