It is true that, for example, the biggest Dutch corporations (such as Royal
Dutch Shell) employ more people and capital outside Holland than inside it, and
that they don’t exhibit a special loyalty towards Holland other than still
having their HQ here (partly for tax reasons). But actually the vast majority
of big multinationals are nationally based and primarily nationally owned.
Yes, of course, the concept of “state” is different from the concept of
“nation”. But big business is not indifferent to nations at all, and requires
the support of states to operate. The state is both a cost (taxes) and a market
(government contracts), and so they try to reduce their costs and capture more
of the government market. In the end the corporation is owned by real people
who live in some real country and have a certain loyalty to where they live.
In the supremely abstract world of Marxist doctrine, as we know, anything can
mean anything at a certain “level of abstraction” (a la Jerry Levy), but I
think that does not lead to good analysis worthy of Marx. Analysis means you
take something concrete, identify its components, and show how they are related
to each other and fit together.
J.
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