Don't Blame the Corporations

[rhett o rick]

They are not people in spite of what the Conservatives try to tell us. They have no morals and exist for one purpose only, to gain wealth and power. Without morals we shouldn't expect them to behave, we must tightly control them. Ayn Rand & Alan Greenspan and those that worship them, including Conservative Democrats, tell us that corporations work best for everyone if left unregulated. That's bullcrap and Alan admitted such to Congress in 2008.

Corporations are a construct allowed by We The People. When they operate in manners that are detriment to the welfare of We The People, we have a right to prosecute them and execute them.

I does us no good to blame the soulless corporations as we are responsible for controlling them. If you turn a bull loose in a china shop, dont blame the bull.

I know I am lecturing to the choir, but just wanted to say that.

We need to end the culture that is dominated by corporations, a culture that has made H. Clinton a very, very wealthy person.

[daleanime]

1. K&R.....

[onecaliberal]

2. It's true. I blame those who lack morals and allow themselves to be purchased

At the expense of actual human lives.

[EdwardBernays]

3. Ummm

If the bull spent millions lobbying to get into the China shop it would be at least a bit responsible for the outcome.

[rhett o rick]

6. Who is responsible if the bull bribes the door keeper, knowing that the bull will try? nm

[EdwardBernays]

7. The people

That legalised bribery I'd suggest. And of course those people were probably bribed to legalize bribery in the first place.

[Half-Century Man]

4. One of the reasons corporations exist is to transend the individual, people.

Corporations are a legal entity that can form contracts and own property. That's all.

They exist to protect wealth. Partners in corporations have their invested interests separated from their personal finances. Partners in corporations risk no more than the value of their stock or share should the corporation go bankrupt, commit crimes, or be forced to make any sort of reparation.

Corporations exist to outlive people. A money making cooperative where you can buy in or sell out of; where you can sell to or buy from; or where you can perform a function at for remuneration. One with the expressed purpose of lasting over time.
Or, so it was until the 1990's when vulture capitalism really took hold. before that, corporations were meant to last decades.

[ghostsinthemachine]

5. Unless that changes (corporate person hood)

NOTHING CHANGES.
They only play by the rules and can't do anything else. By law they are required to do everything they can to create profit. They have no moral or social requirement.

[KoKo]

8. Absolutely! Bernie is just a start...but, he's tackling the basics...

And, even the mostly disgusting Trump...is pointing out the incredible hypocrisy of our Greedy time that might, in the end, be his most valuable contribution even if it destroys his Empire. He's laying wasteland to the RW as he uses them for another grab for power to satisfy his tremendous ego but also Exposing It for what it is!

[rhett o rick]

9. We must continue to fight on when he gets elected. He will need progressive Democrats

to help him get things cleaned up.

[KoKo]

10. Well...we built a Great Coalition after Bush stole Election 2000

So it's possible that when the Demon Trump comes in and Rebuilds the White House in his and Melania's Own Image that we will have a chance to finally build the Dem Party that "Works for THE PEOPLE" led by Bernie Sanders and the huge coalition that he has helped build.

I always remember Trump telling Obama that he wanted to rebuild the White House because there wasn't the proper setting or room when Foreign Dignitaries visited. He wanted to build a large "Ball Room" as an addition to the White House" and Obama rejected it.

What Trump WILL DO is probably Rebuild the Whole White House while he and Meliania and his young son use Maralaga in Palm Beach as the Florida White House where all business will be conducted until the Trump Construction Team rebuilds the White House in Trump's Image of Grandeur.

The People will be very excited about this Construction Project just as they were about Reagan's "Shining City on the Hill" which finally will come to fruition when another ACTOR is Elected.

I used to have the Links to Trump wanting to add on to the White House with the Ball Room and such......but, when my hard drive crashed last year I lost it and was to lazy to do a search. I think it's still available on the search engines under: "Trump Urges Obama to Expand White House by Building a Ball Room Addition" or something like that.

[George Paine]

11. Primary problem with corporations

Every beginning textbook on accounting will mention this.

There are many kinds of costs incurred by corporations, but also by partnerships, small businesses, mom & pop stores and individual people. Wages, utilities, equipment, materials, and so on.

One of them is called Social Costs. It's the effect you have on the environment and human society around you.

Historically Corporations have not paid these costs, and fight to avoid them, because to pay them will reduce profit or force them into a loss. Corporations that run at a loss for too long will die (aka bankruptcy).

The result is that the environment and human society pay these costs for the corporation. When humans don't pay them, the environment is degraded, perhaps permanently. Thus we get polluted air and water, slag heaps, clearcut forests, plastic everywhere, bad health care, slave wages, and so on, without end.

Other than their avoidance of paying their Social Costs, I don't really have a major argument with Capitalism and Corporations.

Corporations should be required to pay their social costs and do it without decades of litigation before they cough up. This involves significant restructuring of our legal and capital-raising systems.

But the idea is simple. Don't damage people and the environment, because you will pay for whatever damage you do. You can't just walk off and say "I don't live here, so screw you," which is the equivalent of hiding behind the "corporate veil." If a person behaved this way, we'd diagnose them as sociopathic or psychopathic.

In effect, corporations, as currently operating, have serious personality disorders.

If corporations accept from the start that they need to pay - or avoid creating - their social costs, capitalism can survive. If they don't, they will so destroy the environment and human societies that nothing will survive.

It's the same as telling your kids, "You mess up the living room, you clean it up, and you do it now."