Richard D. Wolff

Today (July 30th), PBS NewsHour had a confusing segment on "B Corps". Lacking any definition and after attributing broad statements such as "employee ownership" and "doing good for the community and the immediate environment" I still had no idea what this status or certification meant for businesses. The segment even touched on the ills of capitalism, though they were stated more as facts of nature than anything worth talking about. Instead, B Corps were presented as the future of business and economy, which sounds great – but how different can something like this really be? Based on the little I could find, it doesn't seem like B Corps have anything to say on "employee ownership" or environmental standards. So, is there any relation between a B Corp and a true business cooperative? If not (which is my suspicion) can you please elaborate on what this business status even means? Does it conflict at all with D@W initiatives? What sort of incentives would a business have for this certification? Thank you!