Parallel to the governmental institutions that wield power in Western “democracies” are the institutions that wield power through economic means, such as corporations. Like political parties, the governing boards of corporations are selected by members of the institution, but unlike political party candidates, company board members are not proffered by the institution for election — democratic accountability
[1] — by the general community.
[2]
Corporations are institutions formed to generate wealth for their members, and this is achieved by parasitising a population of consumers that constitutes their market share.
[3] This can involve similar practices to those of political parties seeking election. To explain, when goods or services are purchased by consumers, the provision of those goods or services by the corporation is economically selected, and economic selection, like all socio-semiotic selection, occurs on value. That is, the provision of goods and services is selected according to the values of those who consume them. Accordingly, marketing goods and services involves corporations and their allies opportunistically manipulating the value systems of consumers. This largely involves exploiting and creating desires — value disequilibria — in the consumer population through the medium of advertising.
[4] Advertising creates dissatisfactions in the community so that the consumption of goods and services becomes the means of restoring equilibrium. That is to say, corporations generate profits by creating dissatisfaction in people.
[5]
This manipulation of consumer value systems by corporations co-occurs with other processes that benefit the common interests of a wide range of economic institutions. For example, as well as targeting children in advertising and retail outlets, there is a general infantilisation of adult consumers in the mass media. This is evinced, for instance, in the vocal styles used on television and radio. These involve the use of intonation patterns with the same wide pitch ranges that adults use with infants. While, on one hand, wider pitch ranges can amplify the value of the new information under focus, on the other hand, every instance positions the entire age-range of consumers of goods and services in the rôle of complaisant children.
Similar in function to the publishing of pre-election polls, the publishing of best-seller lists, media ratings and the like is the monitoring of the current state of the market, just as consciousness is the monitoring of the current state of the individual person. And in just the same way that consciousness can alter the probabilities of the future behaviour of an individual, publishing best-seller lists and media ratings can alter the probabilities of the future behaviour of the consumer population.
Corporations compete with each other for the attention of consumers as one means of competing for the economic resources of the population. The provision of novel goods or services is the generation of economic variation and the purchase of any goods or services constitutes economic selection of the act of providing them. To avoid extinction, corporations are required to fit both the (resources) environment of consumers and the (social) environment of other corporations. As these environments change, corporations are required to adapt to the new circumstances, which in the case of other corporations, can mean co-adaptation for mutual benefit. An example of co-adaptation is the provision of loans to consumers by financial institutions for the purchase of goods and services, since this benefits both the providers of the purchased goods and services and the financial institutions. The financial institutions benefit not only materially from the interest charged on loans, but also politically from creating a population that is indebted to them.
[6]
In fitting any environment, there are more ways to be unfit than fit. The vast majority of possible novelty is likely not to fit the current state of affairs. The most probable way to be fit is to be as similar as possible to others that are fit. For example, in competing for mates, male fireflies synchronise their flashing to those of their neighbours, minimising the differences between their behaviours, and so reducing the range of choice for female fireflies. So too in competing for consumers, corporations minimise the differences between the goods and services they provide and those provided by successful — economically fit — corporations. For example, airline companies competing on the same route synchronise their flight times, reducing the range of choice for consumers; the producers of electronic goods, movies, television programmes, and so on, imitate their successful competitors, with superficial differentiation sufficient to avoid legal reprisals, reducing the range of genuine choice for consumers. Competition reduces the range of variation produced by corporations and so the range of choices for consumers. The success of genuine novelty depends on novelty in the selective environment, the market of consumers; that is: either different markets, or changes to existing markets, as through the generation of novel dissatisfactions (desires).
Instead, in evolving systems, diversity arises from not competing for the same resources. For example, biological speciation occurs when different subpopulations of a species live in different environments and cease to be in competition with each other. In different environments, different variants may be more likely to be selected. That economic diversity can arise from not competing for resources is demonstrated by the range and quality of goods and services provided by the BBC, compared to other media organisations — the BBC having been established to be financed by radio and television licences, rather than having to compete with other media organisations for funding from corporate sponsors.
Footnotes:
[1] Corporations might be seen as institutional adaptations to legal systems, whereby exploitation can occur without personal accountability.
[2] With corporate executives interacting globally, the international economic system that supervenes is far removed from the consumer community on which it feeds.
[3] In a sense, consumers might be thought of as the dairy cattle owned and regularly milked by corporations.
[4] Note that this foregrounds desiderative and emotive mental processes (wanting and feeling) and backgrounds cognitive mental processes (thinking).
[5] Note that the creation of value disequilibria by corporate and political organisations is the same process that occurs in the semiosis of other social species, such as ants, where the behaviours of individuals are guided by the creation of value disequilibria, which, in the case of ants, are induced chemically by air-borne pheromones.
[6] This is the continuation of the economic politics of pre-industrial societies where power is similarly accumulated through debts to be repaid in the future.
ChatGPT revised:
Corporations and Economic Power in Western “Democracies”
Parallel to the governmental institutions wielding power in Western “democracies” are the institutions that wield power through economic means, notably corporations. Like political parties, corporations are governed by boards selected by members of the institution. However, unlike political party candidates, company board members are not subject to democratic accountability by the general public[1]. This means that corporate leaders operate without the same level of public oversight that theoretically exists in democratic political systems.
Corporations are institutions formed with the primary goal of generating wealth for their members, achieved through the exploitation of consumers who constitute their market share[2]. The economic selection that drives corporate decisions is fundamentally grounded in the values of consumers — what people desire, what they are willing to pay for. In this sense, corporations, like political parties, engage in manipulating value systems. They do so by exploiting consumer desires, often through advertising and marketing tactics that create or amplify dissatisfactions in order to make consumption appear as a solution to these issues[3]. Corporations generate profits by perpetuating cycles of dissatisfaction and consumption, reinforcing the idea that the consumption of goods and services is the means of restoring equilibrium.
The Role of Advertising and Consumer Manipulation
Advertising is central to the process by which corporations manipulate consumer value systems. It exploits emotive and desiderative mental processes (wanting and feeling) while downplaying cognitive processes (thinking) in order to create value disequilibria. This process mirrors broader socio-semiotic patterns in which value disequilibria are used to direct behaviours — similar to how ants follow pheromone trails, or how political parties stir fear or hope to align public sentiment. Thus, corporations influence and guide consumer behaviours not through rational argumentation but through the strategic creation of emotional or psychological gaps, which then prompt action in the form of purchasing goods and services[4].
The Market as a Feedback System
Similar to the role of pre-election polls in politics, the publication of best-seller lists, media ratings, and other forms of market monitoring function to track the state of the market. Just as consciousness can alter the future actions of an individual, these market indicators alter the future behaviour of consumers by framing their perceptions and influencing their actions. As such, corporations, like political parties, are engaged in a constant process of feedback manipulation to align consumer behaviour with their economic interests.
Competition and Co-Adaptation in the Corporate World
Corporations are in constant competition with one another for the attention of consumers and for access to economic resources. Novel goods and services represent economic variation, while consumer choices provide a mechanism of economic selection. To survive and thrive, corporations must adapt to the ever-changing environment of consumers and to the competitive social environment created by other corporations. This leads to co-adaptation, where companies adapt to one another in mutually beneficial ways. For example, financial institutions provide loans to consumers, benefiting both the lenders (through interest) and corporations (by increasing purchasing power). This creates a cycle of interdependence between different sectors of the economy[5].
In this system, the most likely route to success is conformity. The pressure for corporations to imitate successful competitors limits the variety of consumer choices. For example, in industries like airlines or electronics, companies often synchronize their services (flight schedules or product designs) to avoid falling behind industry standards. This reduces the diversity of available options, constraining consumer choice and limiting genuine innovation.
Economic Diversity Through Non-Competition
Diversity in economic offerings often arises not from direct competition but from non-competition for resources. This is demonstrated in how publicly funded institutions, like the BBC, operate in contrast to private corporations. Unlike corporations, the BBC is not forced to compete with other media organisations for funding from corporate sponsors, allowing it to provide a broader range of content without the same market pressures. This shows that economic diversity can flourish when institutions are not directly competing for the same financial resources, providing a model for a more varied and diverse economic landscape[6].
Footnotes:
[1] While corporations might appear to be answerable to their shareholders, they are not subject to direct democratic accountability by the public in the same way political parties are.
[2] Consumers might, in a sense, be thought of as the dairy cattle of corporations, regularly "milked" for profit.
[3] Marketing strategies rely heavily on manipulating consumer psychology by exploiting pre-existing desires or creating new ones, amplifying dissatisfaction with current circumstances.
[4] This manipulation of desires is crucial for maintaining a profitable feedback loop in consumer economies, where the desire for material goods is constantly stoked.
[5] This mutual adaptation between corporations is akin to the co-evolution seen in biological systems, where different species or organisms may adapt to one another’s presence in ways that benefit both.
[6] The BBC’s model provides an alternative to the competitive, profit-driven approach of other media companies, highlighting the potential for diversity in a system where economic resources do not hinge on constant competition.