Quote:
Originally Posted by mookiemookie
I'll believe corporations are people when one goes to jail and Texas executes it.
To argue a corporation is a person is ridiculous on its face. A corporation is not flesh and blood. It has no citizenship. Why would you grant a corporation say over the political process of a country when it owes absolutely no loyalty to one? A corporation can move it's home office to any country it desires and that decision is based on pure profit and economic motives, not any sense of patriotism or duty to a country.
A corporation is an association of people enacted to reduce liability and facilitate economic activity. It is not a person. It has the economic rights of an individual - can own land, enter into contracts, conduct trade, etc - but where I take issue is that just because we've assigned corporations the economic rights of an individual, that doesn't mean that we need to assign it political rights as well. You ask why an association of people shouldn't have a say in the political process but that's a red herring - it ignores the fact that a corporation is an association of people acting to an economic end, not a political one. No one starts a company in order to engage in the democratic process, they start one in order to make money. You're conflating the two aspects when they should remain separate. There are already avenues for people to associate together in order to influence the democratic process - PACs, for one. Why do we need to grant corporations more rights that don't pertain to their core purpose?
To say that a corporation is an association of people and it should be granted rights is to ignore what a corporation actually is. Does the mail clerk at Goldman Sachs have a say in corporate policy? So why should we grant Goldman political rights when in actuality the actions of a corporation are decided by a very small group of people at the top of the organization? That's granting those people a lot of power, and it's not granting that same power to those lower on the totem pole.
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Have you by chance seen the HBO series" The Newsroom"? Your comment reminds me of several scenes. Talks about the concept of a greater fool and the difference between a corporation and an individual. Great show! You should definitely check it out. I think you'll like it.