All Things
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Istheskyfalling? Leftists,readersofMarx,socialists,communists,anarchistsandothershaveheldforalongtimethatcapitalismwasboundtocollapse.Itwouldbebroughtdownbyits internalstressesandstrainsthatproducedasteadyseriesofcommercialbubbles,recessions,depressionsandlarge-scalecalamities.Itwouldbefollowedbysocialism—asocietymoreequal,morefree,morehumanethanours....
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The Free Market We hear daily about the blessings of the free market. But we hear a lot less about its limitations. In practice it is well understood that some things do well if traded in a market. Other things, we believe firmly, should...
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The deficit and wages. The Democrats refuse to cut services like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in order to reduce the government deficit. They think that would be totally unfair. The Republicans refuse to raise taxes on corporations...
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p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Taxes It's tax time again. No one likes paying taxes; everyone feels done to. The news of people who pay no taxes sells a lot of newspapers. What is really going on? General...
- What Do We Owe To Fellow Citizens?
I recently had the opportunity to attend the annual awards ceremony of a local charitable organization. The room was filled with well-meaning persons who had spent a significant amount of time and energy during the last year volunteering, most in order...
All Things
Are Corporations Persons?
In1886theUSSupremeCourtdeclaredthatcorporations—suchasGeneralElectricorGeneralMotors—werepersonsforthepurposesoftheFourteenthAmendment.Inthisview,treatingcorporationsas"persons"isaconvenientlegal fictionthatallowscorporationstosueandtobesued,thatprovidesasingleentityforeasiertaxationandregulation,thatsimplifiescomplextransactionsthatwouldotherwiseinvolve,inthecaseoflargecorporations,thousandsofpeople,andthatprotectstherightsoftheshareholders,includingtherightofassociation.
That sounds perfectly reasonable. Corporate personhood is a mere legal fiction for the purpose of court actions and taxation.
Todaythisfictionhasominouspoliticalconsequences.LastyearinCitizensUnitedv.FederalElectionCommissiontheSupremeCourtdecidedthat,beingpersons,corporationshavefreespeechrightsandthusnoonemaylimitcorporatepoliticalspending.Ifwetellcorporationsthattheycanspendonlysomuchforpoliticalcampaigns,wearetellingthemthattheirabilitytospeakoutonpoliticsislimitedand—sincetheyareperson—thatwouldcontraveneoneofourmostdearlyheldconstitutionalprinciplesthatallpersonsarefreetospeaktheirmind.
Corporations have a lot more money to spend on political campaigns than you and I. They can engage in a lot more and a lot louder political speech than you and I. In fact this court case may well intensify the corporate ability to drown out citizens' political opinions. Corporations are now the most important “citizens” that get the best hearing because they can yell louder than anyone else.
It is time to rethink corporate personhood.
Obviously, corporations are not persons. Would you like your daughter to marry one? The fact that corporations will not come to your back yard barbecue to drink beer and talk about the Red Sox is only one indication that this corporate personhood is, indeed, a fiction.
More significant even is that persons are moral beings. We do not always do what is morally right, but the question of morality is always there.
Persons do not only have rights; they have responsibilities. Persons owe gratitude to their benefactors, they have obligations to their parents, and their children. They have civic obligations. They are morally obligated to contribute to the community in which they live, that provided schooling for them, that protects them and their property.
Corporations,typically,arenotgoodcitizens.Theypollutetheenvironment.Intheageoftheglobalcorporation,theyshownoloyaltytotheirnationordonothesitatetodobusinesswithauthoritarianregimes.IBMprovidedthemachineryforNaziGermanytomakelistoftheirJewishcitizenstherebyenablingmasskillings.GeneralMotorsandFordmadetrucksandtanksfortheUSmilitaryintheUS,andtrucksandtanksforHitler'sarmyinGermany.Anyonewithmoneywillfindcorporationsintheircorner.DuringthelasttwoyearsglobalcorporationslikeGeneralElectricandExxonpaidnoincometaxes.
That kind of cold-blooded money-grabbing is not acceptable if people do it. If corporations are persons can we let them be completely oblivious to the moral obligations of persons?
We need to demand that corporations live up to the full implications of their personhood or be stripped of it altogether.
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Istheskyfalling? Leftists,readersofMarx,socialists,communists,anarchistsandothershaveheldforalongtimethatcapitalismwasboundtocollapse.Itwouldbebroughtdownbyits internalstressesandstrainsthatproducedasteadyseriesofcommercialbubbles,recessions,depressionsandlarge-scalecalamities.Itwouldbefollowedbysocialism—asocietymoreequal,morefree,morehumanethanours....
-
The Free Market We hear daily about the blessings of the free market. But we hear a lot less about its limitations. In practice it is well understood that some things do well if traded in a market. Other things, we believe firmly, should...
-
The deficit and wages. The Democrats refuse to cut services like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in order to reduce the government deficit. They think that would be totally unfair. The Republicans refuse to raise taxes on corporations...
-
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Taxes It's tax time again. No one likes paying taxes; everyone feels done to. The news of people who pay no taxes sells a lot of newspapers. What is really going on? General...
- What Do We Owe To Fellow Citizens?
I recently had the opportunity to attend the annual awards ceremony of a local charitable organization. The room was filled with well-meaning persons who had spent a significant amount of time and energy during the last year volunteering, most in order...