And the reason why no one has thought of it before
How about a naïve but (hopefully) potent idea to shed some hope in the jungle which the corporate world has become today?
What if a major corporation pledged to give up half of its profits to charity in the broad sense, or to education or health services year in year out? Would it be too far fetched to reason that such a measure could boost its revenue and cut its tax rate enough to make up for the loss? That people are inherently good at heart and would choose it over its competitors?
It would take one big player to start playing this game and the next thing you know, everyone’s in on it and it becomes quite the norm, so much in fact that in time, not playing the game would be suicidal for any corporation.
And then it would be made into law, when every major player in the economy is onboarded. Part of the French constitution. A new amendment to the constitution of the United States. Not because it is the humane thing to do, that would be too naïve, but because it would be the most successful corporate growth strategy yet discovered, while saving the state and taxpayers billions, if we consider that universal healthcare or unemployment benefits for instance qualify for such a program. And even if they do not, then alcoholic anonymous would, and that still saves the state billions in damages and loss of life and limb.
Education would qualify too. Education is the last line of defense. When the rose hits the fan, a country must be prepared to lose everything but its education system. Without it, there is no rebuilding what would have been lost, without it, no future generations would hold.
It could be a system where everyone is a winner: households, corporations and states.
It is early morning, right before dawn. I’ve been on this article for a while now and the glass of wine is empty. Yes, we are in France and the article was not supposed to go the way it went, we got lost on the road and ended up in this weird place. Now that I am sobering up, I can see hundreds of reasons for this game not to work and I can see why it is beyond naïve.
But then again, was it only the wine? Why not after all?
One thing is for sure folks, don’t drink and write.
Let the board sound
Rabih
The Idea Sounding Board 
And especially don’t write and drive. You’ll end up in an even weirder place.
More seriously, this idea may be less naïve thank we think. It’s actually happening a little already, in the form of Corporate Social Responsability /Responsabilité Sociétale d’Entreprise.
Every company has now some form of CSR programme. Those who don’t are quickly disadvantaged from a brand equity point of view at least, if not more, and clients are voting with their wallets against irresponsible corporations (or maybe just voting for responsible ones?)
I know a lot of it is posturing or outright lies, but we are now at a point where NOT being CSR is suicide, governments and people are expecting it and companies are spending a lot of money on it. Maybe not where it matters most, but still budgeting and spending.
This was unthinkable not too long ago: it was thought that the free capitalist market wouldn’t care, yet here we are, with a free capitalist market that punishes lack of CSR. Not always and not near enough, bit still enough to matter.
It wouldn’t be too far a stretch to imagine a bit more legislation year after year to nudge all this in the right directions. And people’s expectations are growing.
And next thing you know, you can drink and write 🙂 Problem solved!
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