p-3cwPeRbeWWgGk
Corporations now have all the privileges of citizenship, without any of the responsibilities.
If corporations were human, they would be accountable to society when they break the law and would be punished with a loss of their freedoms.
If corporations were human, they would one day die. Unlike the finitude of human life, modern corporations can live forever under the law.
Corporations can’t have it both ways—insisting upon the political and civil rights that human beings are guaranteed under the Constitution, while at the same time refusing to live within the constraints of human life in terms of longevity, size, accountability and support of the communities that grant them their existence.
AlterNet, By Scott Klinger, Jan 22 commentary, WASHINGTON - [The recent] Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case removes all limits on large corporations to finance and influence federal elections. In its ruling the court reverses a decades-old ruling barring companies from using their general funds to fund political campaigns, and guts pieces of the popular McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation. In so doing the Court implicitly embraces a 125 year-old precedent in the case of Santa Clara v. Santa Fe, where the Court first developed the legal doctrine of corporate personhood, explicitly granting corporations the same political and civil rights granted to human beings (historian Thom Hartmann discovered that the principle originated with a corrupt court clerk who added it to the case summary, rather than with the court itself).
But what if we accept corporate personhood as the current reality and instead focus on changing the rules so that corporations would also have to be bound by other limitations of humanity? How would corporations be different if they were indeed human-like?
If corporations were human, they would pause for sleep and recreation. When human families vacation, they frequently go to parks or natural places which they inherently recognize as part of the commons set apart from the marketplace. Many corporations know no such bounds; if resources are available, even in the nation’s National Parks, they will seek to develop them. Today’s modern corporations are 24/7 affairs that are always charging forward. The press for continuous growth and the need to deliver the next quarter’s earnings, make corporation’s urgency and intensity toward time a threat to many communities, which have other priorities like caring for children and elders, not the tireless quest to produce more profit.
If corporations were human, they would acknowledge their dependence on a healthy community for their well-being and contribute financially to the vibrancy of the community through payment of taxes. Fifty years ago, corporate taxes made up nearly 22 percent of the federal treasury receipts; today corporate taxes contribute less than 13 percent to the federal budget. The mindset of many large corporations is that of takers, looking to be supported by society with a stream of tax credits and preferential tax rates. According to a 2008 report by the Government Accounting Office, 25 percent of large U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes in 2005 (the latest year studied) despite reporting collective sales exceeding $1.1 trillion.
If corporations were human, they would recognize that their brains are only one of many vital organs. The brain, which provides the executive function for the body whole, nonetheless consumes a relatively modest share of the body’s nutrition. A brain that swells beyond a normal healthy state is a dire threat to the body and most often requires the dramatic intervention of surgery. An inhuman corporation provides ever-larger amounts of nutrition in the form of money to its executive function. These swollen levels of pay are a cancer that often results in excessive risk, putting both the corporation and society at risk.
If corporations were human, they would be accountable to society when they break the law and would be punished with a loss of their freedoms. When a person steals or murders, they are sent to prison, where they lose their freedom to practice their trade and to participate in the economic and political life of the community. When corporations produce products they know to be deadly, or withhold important information on the safety of their products are they not guilty of murder? When corporations submit fraudulent financial statements to investors, or engage in deceptive marketing practices that cost people their homes or their life savings, are they not guilty of felonious theft? Shouldn’t corporate criminals, particularly repeat offenders, be denied their freedom to practice business and have their license revoked?
If corporations were human, they would one day die. Unlike the finitude of human life, modern corporations can live forever under the law, growing in size and gaining political and economic power generation after generation.
It was not always so. When our nation was young, people recognized both the good things that business contributed but also the risks of concentrating too much power in the hands of businesses. Business charters were granted for a set period of time, commonly a generation, after which time the businesses would be dissolved. While businesses could still prosper and grow to have influence, they were kept from becoming “too big to fail”—a condition in which their size alone was a threat to the social order.
Corporations can’t have it both ways—insisting upon the political and civil rights that human beings are guaranteed under the Constitution, while at the same time refusing to live within the constraints of human life in terms of longevity, size, accountability and support of the communities that grant them their existence.
Scott Klinger is an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.
“The ends do not justify the means.” If you use illegal mean to accomplish a legal and even desirable result, the good result does not make the bad means you used justifiable.
Related posts:
Did we tap the keg a little to much today Branson?
I hate to break it to you but Corporations have been viewed as individuals in the USA for lets see… 234 years. Before that Mother England regognized the concept of corporations several hundred years prior. Ever hear of Corporations like “The Hudson Bay Company”, “Lloyds of London”, British, and Dutch East India Companies, chartered in 1600 and 1602 respectively?
Come on Branson break out the old crib sheets from your Bar Exams.
I hope your wank is longer than your memory of history or you’d always be pissing down your leg.
The really good thing about this ruling is all those non-profit organizations that were stopped by McCain-Feingold are now able to get and mix it up in the political arena too.
A list of British Colonial Companies:
Company of Merchant Adventurers of London · Company of Merchant Adventurers · London and Bristol Company · African Company of Merchants · Muscovy Company · Spanish Company · Eastland Company · Morocco Company · East India Company · Levant Company · Virginia Company · French Company · Massachusetts Bay Company · Providence Island Company · Royal West Indian Company · Hudson’s Bay Company · Royal African Company · Greenland Company · South Sea Company · Sierra Leone Company · North Borneo Company · Royal Niger Company · South Africa Company
Guess Dan woke from a slumber and posted something non sequitur.
At issue, in its ruling the court reverses a decades-old ruling barring companies from using their general funds to fund political campaigns.
At issue,in it’s ruling the Court implicitly embraces a 125 year-old precedent in the case of Santa Clara v. Santa Fe, where the Court first developed the legal doctrine of corporate personhood, explicitly granting corporations the same political and civil rights granted to human beings (historian Thom Hartmann discovered that the principle originated with a corrupt court clerk who added it to the case summary, rather than with the court itself).
At issue, the ruling removes all limits on large corporations to finance and influence federal elections.
At issue, 25 percent of large U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes in 2005 (the latest year studied) despite reporting collective sales exceeding $1.1 trillion. If they were people, they would be in jail for tax evasion.
At issue,corporations can’t have it both ways—insisting upon the same political and civil rights that human are guaranteed, while at the same time refusing to live within the constraints of human life and laws that govern our lifes.
The time was right for fascism to surge forward.
“…125 year-old precedent in the case of Santa Clara v. Santa Fe, where the Court first developed the legal doctrine of corporate personhood, explicitly granting corporations the same political and civil rights granted to human beings …”
You say, “At issue, 25 percent of large U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes in 2005 ” Yet that same year the top 25% of wage earners paid 83.6% of all income taxes.
The U.S. Treasury Department recently released a memo (PDF) that sheds some light on the issue:
…[A] small group of higher-income taxpayers pay most of the individual income taxes each year. In 2002, the latest year of available data, the top 5 percent of taxpayers paid more than one-half (53.8 percent) of all individual income taxes, but reported roughly one-third (30.6 percent) of income.
Looks like your problem is you want to promote Class Warfare. You want not only to strip that 5% of their wealth but muzzle their free speech.
You just made the argument for me.
It’s understandable there is a genuine need to speak for fascism’s creeping petty pace from day to day. From Halliburton to the money oil changer in Iraq, to the five wealthiest families in the world that own the Federal reserve. They, and all the other corporations whom we’re told are too big to fail, have manipulated us like puppets, divided us right down the middle like sheep, and conquered America as though its people were unknowing lambs.
Some bleat their cause.
We recently witnesses the greatest heist of taxpayers money in human history. We know not what ever became of all that money. And hundreds of billions more missing in government-military-corporate circles; shadow government is well oiled.
Fighting two wars in perpetuity, unprecedented four-five rotations of solders and Marines on the battle field. Hip, Hip F-ing hooray. Nine years of useless war for Halliburton, Carlye and the usual war profiteers.
Create a boggy man and you control the mind its people.
Promote America, promote Americans, not multinational corporations that have no national pride, nor boundaries, and herald their power over the planet, while flouting conspiratorial deeds.
Cheer for their profits if you will. I chose otherwise.