Corporations

When I think about a corporation I see a slightly different picture than the Corporation (which I strongly suggest to anyone). The Corporation is born from the government's charter and the money of the shareholders. But the entity that appears has only one trait: greed. The shareholders that fund and push the entity forward are in the venture with one desire: greed. So the entity is an amalgamation of all the greed of the shareholders. But who guides this entity? Well its got to be someone who can satisfy the greed of the shareholders and so it must be someone who is greedy. This seems to be the Achilles heel of the entity. The guide(s) (board of directors) is also incredibly greedy and will inevitably try to seize more of the money and the whole thing will come apart (Enron, Worldcom etc).

Imagine that the board of directors are so greedy they topple the very beast they are guiding. That's an impressive amount of greed!

What I don't understand is how powerless the public feels. Corporations may be big and have a lot of money but in the end they are subservient to, not only their shareholders (who most likely won't move unless their profit is challenged), but to it's clientele. If a large chunk of people stopped buying Nike for any reason, Nike would very quickly change and meet their demands. A corporation is single minded and so is very much like a turtle with a carrot in front of it, you can guide it with the carrot and the clients have the carrots. So why are people so passive? Is it that they feel powerless, or do they not know anything is wrong (hear no evil see no evil)? Are people convinced by advertising (most commercial turn me off to a product or aid me in making fun of the company such as MacD)?

Why are oppressive regimes so afraid to give power to the people, except for a few, most people will still let you dictate their lives?