Many Americans have a love hate relationship with big corporations. Large manufacturers like the automotive and steel companies along with big service organizations in the insurance and banking industries helped to create a robust middle class. And for a few…it has made them billionaires (e.g., Oprah, Bill Gates). In their wake are many millionaires.

In the mid-1800s the corporation emerged as a legal "person." To what extent is a corporation held to the same standards of responsibility as a human being? Economist Milton Friedman says, "The unintended consequences of a transaction between two parties on a third—is responsible for countless cases of illness, death, poverty, pollution, exploitation and lies."

Thirty years ago much of the negative talk about corporations was of periodic layoffs…but with call backs, unemployment insurance, and pension and health plans. But they were primarily viewed as altruistic to their employees. Concurrent with that notion was a general feeling that corporations looked out for the shareholders and paid taxes to support a foreign policy that gave money to less fortunate nations, kept our defense department strong and paid for services such as Social Security, Medicare, etc. Other than a few polluters and the occasional crook, corporate America was an institution to be revered and respected although feared if you got in their way. The capitalist system was THE way to better distribute income and raise the standard of living for the masses. It gave creditability to the trickle down theory of "a rising tide raises all boats."

Although the film, "The Corporation," does not imply to us that a socialist/communist system is a better alternative than capitalism, it does focus on the downside of the corporation. Just as there is a good side to taxes (building roads, aiding communities with disaster relief, providing health care for the poor, etc.), if there are too many taxes or the money is not spent wisely, negative events can erupt from what is otherwise positive. When the Federal Income tax was first instituted, it was supposed to be temporary. That was almost 100 years ago.

Two of the most interesting segments in the film discuss investigative news management and sustainability of natural resources with respect to a carpet manufacturer. Fox News waters down important "need to know" consumer information by editing a report more than 80 times that exposes how antibiotics given to milk producing cows may lower our ability to resist diseases. The CEO of Interface, the world’s largest commercial carpet company looks at the success of their company and how a change in the view on the sustainability of our natural resources is essential to both our health and wealth. Corporations have a tendency to do what is best for the short-term gain of investors and key executives. Finding the balance between short term and long term goals presents more questions than answers, but it does put us on the right path.

"Fahrenheit 9/11" admittedly takes a position of being against the policies of the Bush administration on many specifics, and in a larger sense how the military industrial complex and our government looks out for the wealthy at the expense of most blue-collar and many white collar folks. For everyday people to have a better life, regardless of who wins the White House in November, substantial change is required. The fact that the subject of health care is not an active item on the agenda of both the Democrats and Republicans illustrates a lack of concern. It is an example of how the wealthy are in good shape and those of us who work for companies or ourselves rather than own companies find getting decent medical coverage increasingly difficult and too often impossible. Shopping at Wal-Mart does not feel so good when we think about the jobs outsourced to foreign lands and the plight of many workers at Wal-Mart. They smile at us as shoppers but not at their spouses when they get home as they discuss the minefield of complications and double speak with respect to their so-called benefits.

"Control Room" lays out the question of balanced reporting in Iraq, and this film "The Corporation," while not meant as a film that ties the three documentaries together, certainly goes a long way toward connecting the dots. It helps decode the sophisticated world of 10- second sound bites, spin control and double-speak, which public relations managers have mastered.

At a time when a precipitous drop in reading books continues to accelerate, do we know more and understand less? If your busy life makes it difficult or impossible to read as much as you’d like, take a couple of hours to look, listen, think and even talk about a thoughtful documentary. You might convince others of things you strongly believe in – or vice versa. You may gain a new perspective on things you thought you knew, or reveal something that has been swept under the rug, otherwise destined never to see the light of day. We like to believe that the cliché "You learn something everyday" is more fact than fiction.