Economic Organisations
What distinguishes organisations which operate in the economic system?
The economic system works with scarcity (Luhmann), in order to preserve future possibilities through abandoning present-day consumption. Thus, it is not scarcity of resources, although, of course, this exists as well but rather, the provision for the future which causes a relinquishing of present-day possibilities for both: the one who provides for the future and all the others who could do with these resources now.
Therefore, economic organisations, just like any other operator in the economy, have to also ensure that they make available resources in the present, for the future. They cannot distribute everything to their members (that would be simple) but they must orientate themselves to the future maintenance of possibilities. Because of this, a permanent need for decision-making is created, which must balance present needs with future possibilities. Because of the unknown future, these decisions are always lacking a fixed and rationally calculable basis.
The present-day requirements, this is important, are now in need of regulation, as organisations would voluntarily maximise the gain to the detriment of their environment (unlike the obligation to morality in noblemen of earlier times or individual entrepreneurs nowadays). Neither adequate salaries, which motivate the members sufficiently, nor taxes for social purposes, are anchored as such in the process of economic organisation. So it is not surprising that organisations in the economic system permanently try to save (salary) costs as well as taxes. The social tasks of economic organisations must, therefore, be regulated politically.