There are a number of serious issues around corporate personhood, limitations of liability, and so on, none of which fit neatly on a bumper sticker. "Fixing" them by muzzling is overly simplistic, if not downright destructive -- especially when the folks agitating to do it are themselves a corporation, or as good as. Bit of what the Brits call an "own goal," isn't it?
Corporate "persons" have rights and protections in law because if they didn't, they would have no investors. Without investors, they would not exist. Without their existence you would not have iPhones, automobiles, bicycles, hamburger, frozen peas, Colt, gender studies text books, sleeveless fleeces or Italian espresso machines at your locally owned hipster coffee shop...or even espresso beans for that matter.
ReplyDeleteI wrote to our US senators with a proposal. Campaign contributions may only be accepted from persons who are eligible to vote for that candidate. Senators Donnaly and Coats took it under advisement pending discussions with their donors.
ReplyDeleteHow much do you want to bet that MTA is incorporated in some fashion in at least the state their headquarters is in? For the members' protection, of course.
ReplyDelete(If they're not incorporated, they're stupid.)
I wonder which leftist Plutocrat throws money at that organization? Bloomberg? Soros? Both?
ReplyDeleteSo if Money isn't Free Speech, I guess that means that THEIR Org doesn't need to be a "Tax-Free Non-Profit," and they should start coughing up their Taxes.
ReplyDeleteSauce for the Goose...
@ batchainpuller:
ReplyDeleteI reject the notion that we would have no modern inventions without corporations.
You could also say that without corporate personhood, the banks could not have taken a trillion in bailout money, after playing fast and loose with loan rules, and then still foreclose on 30% of the homes in Florida, while not even one person went to jail.
@divemedic I wasn't really talking about inventions. I was talking about the systems used to produce products and distribute them for mass consumption. Even when I craft custom art frames, I use woodworking tools, and glass that were produced and delivered by corporations.
ReplyDeleteI'm also missing the connection between corporate malfeasance and the corporation's rights in law. On the contrary, their "personhood" allows them to be punished by the legal system....with due process. Natural persons can also avail themselves to government cronyism and corruption and can be punished or avoid punishment according to their connections with the powers that be.
As for speech, I really don't get why CBS or the New York Times, both corporations, can use their money for political speech, but International Harvester can't.
The whole thing misrepresents the actual Citizen's United decision rather brazenly to boot.
ReplyDeleteThe point isn't that corporations have free speech rights, its that people who have free speech rights organize as corporations to exercise those rights together.