|239| The corporation involves a restriction of the so-called natural right to exercise one’s skill, and thereby to acquire what there is to acquire, only inasmuch as this skill is, within the corporation, determined toward rationality — that is, liberated from one’s own opinion and contingency, from danger to oneself as well as to others, and at the same time recognized, secured, and raised to conscious activity for a common purpose.
§ 254: Is the corporation a chain?
People say: Everyone has a natural right to use his skill and to earn as much as he can. The corporation limits this.
Is that true?
Only in a certain sense. The corporation frees this right from mere opinion and from chance. From danger to oneself and to others. It recognizes this right and secures it. And it raises it to a conscious activity for a common purpose.
A picture:
A river without banks floods and silts up. A river between banks carries ships. The banks limit it and at the same time make it strong.
Summary: The corporation limits the free exercise of a trade only to make it rational. It frees it from chance and directs it toward a common purpose.
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