There is an unfortunate fiction that the U.S. Court justices have created, due to its justices' too-cozy relationship to big business: the endowment of personhood to corporations.
Corporations are not people. They are artificial creations of society that are actually insulated from laws and influences (by which actual people are bound) in order to benefit commerce. These artificial creations allow exponential wealth to be amassed and concentrated in a manner that, when applied to commerce, can achieve great economic growth. However, when applied to politics, these artificial creations can create millions of corrupt politicians and officials who, to compete with the other corrupt politicians flying up from Capistrano, must curry favor with bad guys so they can get a quid pro quo (i.e., “Fund my campaign and I'll make sure you don't get prosecuted”).
Many of those bad guys give money to more successful, corrupt politicians, who actually do get them out of criminal indictments and thereby want to lead us into the bribery-ridden problems of the Ukraine and other eastern European nations.
Do we want more corrupt politicians and more bad guys continuing to be bad guys? Then, we can accept the status quo that lets corporations be people.
Do we want fewer corrupt politicians and bad guys? Then, we can elect politicians who will relegate corporations back to their proper place as artificial business entities to which politicians can't cozy up, like some shyster with a bribe.
Loren M. Lambert © December 20, 2013
Corporations are not people. They are artificial creations of society that are actually insulated from laws and influences (by which actual people are bound) in order to benefit commerce. These artificial creations allow exponential wealth to be amassed and concentrated in a manner that, when applied to commerce, can achieve great economic growth. However, when applied to politics, these artificial creations can create millions of corrupt politicians and officials who, to compete with the other corrupt politicians flying up from Capistrano, must curry favor with bad guys so they can get a quid pro quo (i.e., “Fund my campaign and I'll make sure you don't get prosecuted”).
Many of those bad guys give money to more successful, corrupt politicians, who actually do get them out of criminal indictments and thereby want to lead us into the bribery-ridden problems of the Ukraine and other eastern European nations.
Do we want more corrupt politicians and more bad guys continuing to be bad guys? Then, we can accept the status quo that lets corporations be people.
Do we want fewer corrupt politicians and bad guys? Then, we can elect politicians who will relegate corporations back to their proper place as artificial business entities to which politicians can't cozy up, like some shyster with a bribe.
Loren M. Lambert © December 20, 2013
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