Are we still a republic or are corporations our new nobility?

Feb 02, 2010 12:14

Once again I called the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC, waited on hold, and didn't get on air, making me 3-for-3 lately in that regard. The topic of the discussion was the recent horrible People United decision by the Supreme Court, allowing unlimited spending by corporations in furtherance of their political goals ( Read more... )

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kalimac February 2 2010, 17:38:28 UTC
corporations are composed of people

So are unions. Yet they're expected to take a vote of their members, and even to support a candidate only to the percentage that their members do. Fair enough, but if corporations chose their policies on the basis of "one stockholder, one vote" (instead of "one dollar, one vote, and that only to ratify what management decided"), would things ever be different.

Unlike people, corporations are immortal

And that is also what is screwing up our copyright law, because Mickey Mouse was the first popular character to have been created and owned by a corporation rather than an individual, which (justifiably, if it were an individual making the claim) doesn't want to see the copyright expire in its own lifetime.

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kevin_standlee February 2 2010, 18:37:16 UTC
Without defending the broader point, I would point out that if you personally ran a business (not as a corporation, but as a sole proprietorship), you also would be taxed only on your net profit, not gross income of the business. To that extent, corporate income tax is consistent with personal income tax.

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pnh February 2 2010, 20:11:25 UTC
The only place I disagree with you is the implication that this stuff begins with People United.

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voidampersand February 3 2010, 05:26:09 UTC
Kings are people too. If we tried to stop them from being absolute monarchs, we would be oppressing them.

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apostle_of_eris February 3 2010, 05:41:19 UTC
Actually, corporations may be owned by people, but they're made out of money.
We've had a clear and simple pattern for thirty years now: a Republican Administration takes a blowtorch to the Constitution, and they are succeeded by a Democratic Administration which entrenches the previous administrations gains.

Bill Clinton was significantly to the right of Richard Nixon, and Barak Obama is to the right of Bill Clinton . . .

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