In the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision from January 2010, we learned that corporations are citizens, entitled to the freedoms and rights we as ordinary American citizens enjoy. "Corporations are people, my friend," insisted Mitt Romney to a group of hecklers on the campaign trail.
So, if corporations are people (a special class of people with lots and lots of money and influence and power), it's fair to ask what they want. Do they want the same things as the average citizen? Do they want decent pay for all, adequate health care for all, a solid education for all, and democratic structures that foster individual creativity, informed dissent and equitable power-sharing?
To ask these questions is to answer them. Generally speaking, major corporations prefer minimal pay and benefits for workers, a largely uncritical and powerless workforce and minimal taxes, as well as unlimited power for themselves, which they can then employ to influence elections and maximize profits.
In a word, they want control.
A largely unsung movie that captures this dream of corporate control is Rollerball (the original version with James Caan). It depicts a future in which there are no nations -- only major corporations like Energy, Housing, Transport, and Food. And these "majors," explains an executive played memorably by John Houseman, make "decisions on a global basis for the common good." They provide. And all they ask of ordinary folk, Houseman intones, is gratitude in the form of silent compliance, a tacit agreement "not to interfere with management decisions."
But James Caan refuses to play along. Confronted by his ex-wife Ella, now married to a member of the executive class, Caan thinks back to a dim past when people had a choice between "nice things or freedom; of course, they chose comfort." "But comfort is freedom," Ella objects. Corporations are providers who merely want "a kind of incidental control over just a part of our lives," she concludes.
Refusing to be bought off, Caan triumphs in a violent sport whose rules are specifically designed to maim or kill him. (Think of this year's Hunger Games.) And we leave the theater celebrating his defiance.
Americans admire plucky individuals, those who cry "Give me liberty or give me death." But how much liberty do we truly have when we cede so much power to corporations? When the supreme court of our land essentially empowers corporations to thwart democracy and to buy elections?
In the spirit of Orwell, we recognize the tyranny implicit in the phrase, "All citizens are equal -- but some are (much) more equal than others." Yet despite this we've made it the law of the land. How much longer, then, until we're singing, like the crazed spectators in Rollerball, our very own corporate anthems?
Professor Astore writes regularly for TomDispatch.com and can be reached at wjastore@gmail.com.
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Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission - Wikipedia, the free ...
http://libcom.org/library/us-thibodaux-massacre-1887
US: The Thibodaux Massacre of 1887 | libcom.org
"One of the most interesting, and probably least known events in Louisiana history is the Thibodaux Massacre of 1887, the second most bloody labor dispute in U.S. history.
Although most of the blood letting occurred in the environs of Thibodaux, the strike encompassed a larger area. The strike affected sugar plantations in St. Mary, Terrebonne ,and Lafourche parishes. These parishes make up an area known as the "sugar bowl." Thibodaux is the parish seat of Lafourche.
The plight of the sugar cane worker in 1887 was one of back-breaking labor and meager pay. Most field hands were paid approximately 13 dollars a month. They were also paid in script. Script was basically a coupon redeemable only at the company store owned by the planter. The store´s prices were normally marked up 100%. You can see that the worker usually wound up being indebted to the planter. Louisiana law stated that if a worker owed money to a planter he could not move off the planters land until the debt was paid. This law essentially reduced the plantation laborer to the status of serf..."
Corporations have their own interests and agendas, to include maximizing profits and market share and their own span of control, and not just over the realm of business. They have vital roles to play in a capitalistic system, but to legally sanction their ability to influence elections through nearly unlimited spending on campaigns is to facilitate the rule of money instead of the rule of the people.
To suggest that “corporations are people” is a categorical error that is antithetical to democracy of the people, by the people, for the people. And if we persist in giving nearly unlimited power to moneyed interests, democracy will indeed perish from this earth.
I think George Carlin explained it pretty well with his American Dream routine in 2005
(caution, clip contains some language many might find offensive.................
personally I find what he describes far more obscene than the language he uses to describe it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q
Please cite the page and line number in the official SCOTUS published opinion where it ruled that corporations are citizens, entitled to the freedoms and rights we as ordinary American citizens enjoy. Even Justice Steven (Ret.) would disagree with your interpretation.
You learned from the Citizen United case and you tried to summarize its holding by saying that corporations are citizens, entitled to the freedoms and rights we as ordinary American citizens enjoy (in ever sense of the word)?
Where in the ruling of Citizen Untited did it say "corporations are entitled to all the rights of ordinary American citizens"? (page No. plaease). The fact is no where. Perhaps you should re-read the ruling published for the case, and even Justice Stevens (Ret.) would disagreed with you that corproations are persons and entitled to ever right of an individual in any of the SCOTUS cases.
CORPORATIONs are not in it to make products, customers, happiness or for that matter even money. CORPORATIONs are in it to be ALL and only ONE. The problem is that CORPORATIONs are the embodiment of Ouroboros and IF they are permitted to become ONE, then when the self destructive nature of CORPORATION becomes only one, it will destroy all and everything, even itself.
CORPORATIONs are the most dangerous, deadly and self destructive concept ever created on earth.
More.
Also, many who live in foreign lands may also own a piece in these corps. Indeed, many American corps are subsidiaries of foreign owned holding companies, entities from which these corps take their marching orders. BP North America is an example of that. Did they pressure our legislature to relax drilling regulations as a means to maximize their profits? See the problem?
If corps are citizens, they why don't they have the right to vote, one vote per shareholder. And of course since the CEO makes the decisions here, they should be given a stack of ballots to fill out, right?
And corps should have the right to bear arms and defend themselves from lethal attack, right? So when Bain went to take over and bankrupt some business, it had the right to arm some of it's workers and start shooting the execs at Bain, right?
And then there's the 5th. A subpeona for records/evidence could be ignored by a corp because of potential self incrimination, right?
This ruling is idiodic.
Corproations are not citizens. Corporations are not entitled to vote, marry, or procreate. There is a whole slew of rights not afforded to corproations, but are available to ordinary citizens.
The Fifth Amendment privilege protects only natural persons; it does not apply to corporations. Bradswell v. United States, 487 U.S. 99, 104 (1988) (a corporation has no Fifth Amendment privilege).
Yes, corps are not citizens. So why are they granted free speech rights as if they were? If they are regarded as the mouthpiece of their shareholders (domestic and foreign I suppose), then they ought to at least be required to understand what their shareholders want to say.
Today it is the American Multi-National Corporation that has become corrupt because they posses too much power. We must control the power of the corporation before their corruption completely destroys our democracy, which is their ultimate goal.
Corporate American Flag
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the corporate states of America.
And to the conglomeration,for which it stands, one nation, under many CEOs,
always divisible, with liberty and privileges for some." -- unknown
1 pay workers as little as possible
2 provide workers with as few benefits as possible
3 charge the MOST they can get away with for their goods and services
4 increase profit regardless of the effect on the environment or work force
5 buy the white house so as to control their ability to rape the country
just no pleasiung some people.