Multinational corporations are succeeding in unifying the world economy, but they are having little impact on achieving social and political progress. The economic benefits of multinationals in their host countries is often limited to a select few. The chief goal of these corporations is the maximization of profits, a goal which often conflicts with fundamental human needs and national interests. Although the world managers of multinationals consider themselves forces for peace, stability, and development, the corporations that they head only serve to aggravate social inequities in developing countries.
The world managers of multinational corporations speak in glowing terms of a new world order in which national boundaries will become obsolete. As one IBM executive states, "For business purposes the boundaries that separate one nation from another are no more real than the equator." The global corporation has emerged as a planetary enterprise in which distinctions between home country and host country markets are obliterated. The single market concept prevails because, for most multinationals, profits from host countries now exceed those generated by home countries, particularly for U.S.-based firms. American-based corporations are investing an increasingly substantial proportion of their assets abroad. As a result, world managers contend that the true multinational corporation has become, in essence, a company without a country.
World managers of multinational corporations are engaged in a massive public relations campaign to educate the international community to their unique way of thinking. This worldview would permanently alter the nation-state system that has existed for the past 400 years. World managers contend that it is the multinationals who now possess the power to control and create wealth, not the governments of various countries: "The power of the global corporation derives from its unique capacity...