By Jose Antonio Simon
Do Corporations Have a Responsibility to Society That extends Beyond Merely Maximizing profit? Strategies and Tactics Are Such corporate downsizing and outsourcing as unethical and / or unpatriotic?
The answer to this question, as well as Countless Others, is "depends." Often times when we generalize in regards to topics as broad as this one, we find ourselves wrong. Some might even be surprised by what seems to be a spontaneous fit of fickleness, in which they cannot decide what to think because they see both arguments clearly. It is the distinct desire of the author not to fall into the aforementioned states of being, and so, we move into the unsteady realm that is opinion (I feel the ground beginning to shake as I write these words). 
Not surprisingly, "depends" doesn't often suffice, and I'm sure it wont get me a nice review from the person who's reading either, so my concrete answer would be no. To begin with, the concept of a corporation should be defined. A corporation, or business, as defined by the author is an organization which functions solely in the realm of business. It has no responsibilities; only interests, which are to make a profit and grow or survive while exchanging goods or services for money. The business cannot, as its employees could, become involved in any other activities while maintaining its identity. That is to say, if Ford Motor Company strays from its business realm as a whole and begins playing soccer, Ford Motor Company can no longer remain a corporation, for they will have become a soccer team. And so, when we begin to assign the human concept of responsibility to a business, we also begin to change the business into something other than what a business is. And even though it holds no responsibility towards it, it is, however, within a business' interests to not pose a detriment to the society that contains it, for that would conflict with its own survival. Having said that, in a capitalist world, an ideal business of any sort benefits society and more so when that business is successful, as it stimulates the economy, creates jobs, etc. We are assuming that everything the business does is for the sake of its survival, and not for any other subjective motivations, so in regards to downsizing and outsourcing, it is most unfortunate that many people should lose jobs in downsizings and such, but these actions are taken in the effort to save other jobs and consequently the corporation itself. It would be detrimental to a business if it were to maintain all employees and eventually run such said business to the ground, resulting in an even larger loss of jobs. Outsourcing can reduce costs and also secure a short-term future for a corporation.It could be said that unemployment is not good for a society, and thus not good for a business, but the reason these actions are not disadvantageous to a society is that, as the business grows, it feeds the growth of other companies with which it deals, and eventually business in general can grow to a point where it absorbs unemployment. 
In conclusion, a concept such as responsibility cannot be applied to business just because a business is an entity that functions in a realm where responsibility does not exist. To use the language of the question, corporations do not have a responsibility to society that extends beyond merely maximizing profit, ideally, they need only function within what their interests require them to. Yet, just when one begins to feel free of the burden of answering such a question, we are reminded that we do not live in an ideal world, and we cannot ignore the damages that WalMart, Enron, Tyco etc. have inflicted on the society that contains them. I would argue that, by the definition above, all of these companies ceased to be businesses, and became a front to the greed and irresponsibility of the people in charge of them. It is fair to call these companies irresponsible, because they have assumed human qualities not normally present in a true business. So the real conclusion, if I can manage to write it before I am stoned by an angry mod of disgruntled Enron employees, would Be That Corporations Do not have a Responsibility to Society That extends Beyond Merely Maximizing profit, and downsizing and outsourcing Do Not Qualify as unethical practices; However, if a business Cease to Be a Business and Become an agent for a human's negative Ambitions, Then yes ; full Responsibility Is To Be Expected From These new business-like Entities. Simón José Antonio Inglés is the Editor of
Literal-Latin American Voices
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