Short Summary about Corporate Personhood

Is capitalism the same when a person is both a human and a corporation? Humans die while corporations are immortal beings that can never go to jail for their crimes and have the ability to spawn endlessly into other corporations. These beings are legally mandated to uphold profits above all other competing interests. Due to the legal benefits that these strange people have been granted for the last 130 years, they are allowed to have a disproportionally large amount of influence on the democratic process. Last year, the Supreme Court further expanded the power of corporate persons in a 5-4 ruling on January 21st, 2010 that "overturns doctrine dating back a century and laws upheld in 1990.” Michael Waldman of the New York Times stated about the decision that it, "strikes at the heart of democracy" by having "paved the way for corporations to use their vast treasuries to overwhelm elections and intimidate elected officials into doing their bidding." Not that this didn't happen before in indirect ways, it is now legal for corporations to do this. What this means is that the voice of the people gets drowned out by the corporate megaphones.

It was the 14th Amendment that corporate attorneys used to gain their corporate clients the status of persons under the law. The 14th Amendment was written to protect the rights of freed slaves in all states stating that, no state shall deprive a person of life liberty property and due process of the law. These corporate attorneys stated that, “We are a person, a corporation is a person” and judges went along with it. From 1890-1910, there were 307 cases brought forth to the Supreme Court about corporate persons, 288 were corporations gaining personhood rights while 19 of those cases were freed slaves defending their rights. These freed slaves were supposed to be protected by this amendment yet they benefited not by it.

Once corporate persons began in 1886 in the case of Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad, the first major industry that these new people began to consolidate was the media. With the birth of capitalism’s version of Frankenstein, these corporate people began controlling the media message in a systematic way. With this newfound power, along with manufacturing goods these corporations were creating messages in order to ”manufacture the consent” of the people as stated by the influential media mind of the early 20th century, Walter Lippmann. Ending corporate persons brings about media reform and does away with large corporate conglomerates.

Before these entities became people, corporate charters included mandates like caps on earnings. So, if a corporation exceeded the cap on their earnings, the excess money would be given to the community where that corporation benefited from being located.

Corporations are now mandated by law to uphold profits above all other competing interests. This is why a company like Monsanto will dispose of toxic chemicals called PCBs in the vacant lots of Anniston, Alabama causing many people to die and thousands to sue Monsanto. Human life in this case was a “competing interest.” In this example, there was a leak of an internal document of Monsanto’s which stated that the company did not want to spend $1 on the disposal of these deadly chemicals. After this was discovered, the people who made these decisions at Monsanto did not go to jail for manslaughter. Actions like these of corporations are praised by the profiting shareholders while those who make these decisions get bonuses and benefit from the limited liability protections that corporate personhood grants them. Another example of this was the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. The spill cost $5 billion dollars to clean up and those costs were socialized to taxpayers. Exxon had to pay a $500 million dollar EPA violation for not cleaning up the oil spilled. Instead of paying the violation, they appealed it. After 18 years in court in 2007, the appeal was ruled upon. Exxon ended up paying $50 million dollars for the EPA violation which was 1% of the cleanup costs. This was at a time when Exxon was recording record profits in the tens of billions of dollars. Their profits were privatized while the costs of their industry were socialized. This is not some obscure example, this is business as usual in the world of corporate capitalism. Getting rid of these corporations will allow for a whole new world of possibilities directed by we the people creating local sustainable communities no longer oppressed by these unjust corporate persons. In doing this, we will be able to address environmental issues while no longer having our elected officials subsidizing the oil companies thus tackling issues like campaign finance reform. The never ending wars are fueled by the financial backing of the corporate weapons manufacturers, what President Eisenhower called, “The Military Industrial Complex.” Stripping these corporations of their rights as people helps for us to end the wars and bring the troops home. The people’s voice is what will influence the decisions of our elected officials once the dark chapter in the history of corporate persons has ended.

The bottom 50% of our country has much to gain from corporations no longer being people. These companies will be forced to pay their fair share in taxes and will not be allowed to attack labor unions. Our government will have more revenue from the corporate pockets of the 1% who are the majority shareholders of these corporations to spend on creating jobs, education and health care. We will also have succeeded in getting the corporations out of the hospitals and medicine as the pharmaceutical industry is a trillion dollar a year business. Goods like food, water and medicine for people to survive are basic human rights and not for corporations to maximize their profits selling to us while we are drained of our money.

Once we succeed, agencies like the FDA will no longer be controlled by the corporate influence and food will be healthier with harmful chemicals removed from standard farming practices. No longer will these huge agribusinesses use genetically modified foods, bovine growth hormone, pesticides and chemical fertilizers that have been linked to cancer because with corporations no longer considered persons, actions like these will cause CEOs to end up behind bars in jail and immense amounts of money to be paid out in lawsuits to the people hurt by these corporate actions. The lawsuits will be paid out quickly replacing the legal process that goes on now where people who have been harmed by the actions of these immortal psychopaths have to wait ten or even twenty years only to end up settling outside of court for a fraction of the damages they incurred if they are still alive to collect it.

After we succeed in abolishing corporate persons, we the people will have gained a legal footing which we will be able to use as we continue to carry out reforms and further actions. Organizers, activists, people working on the grassroots level and labor will all be able to make huge strides on a newfound platform allowing people’s rights to be rightfully held in a much higher place in our society than the profits of these corporations. The idea of perpetual growth is what rules these monsters. They want more and more never taking into account the real costs that we all have to pay for their blind pursuit of profit. The goal of these strange persons only stretches out three months looking at their quarterly gains statements. As the economy collapses and the environment crumbles these corporations and their minions on Wall Street continue to take and hoard as much of the financial capital as they can.

Together, we can end this. Together, we can make history. A Constitutional amendment that states that, “A person is a human and only a human,” will change the rules of the game which is now tilted in the favor of the 1%. The 1% are the majority share holders of these corporations. Once the dark clouds of this long era of corporate tyranny has ended the shackles on our democratic process will be removed. Actions like the United States of America becoming the world’s leading producer of renewable energy and building a network of high speed rail and public transportation across the nation can become a reality. These actions will create tens of millions of jobs. These jobs will be paid with a living wage and more. Now is the time. This is our moment. We must stand together in solidarity. We, the human people, must for once and for all abolish the perverse notion of corporate persons.

In Solidarity with lending my energy to a people centered sustainable society,

Michael

Michael@TeamGood.org