Check out this fascinating 2 minute video clip on how corporations became people. * Fast-forward to 2:20 *. (There’s also another great 30 second clip at the bottom of this post – – a startling admission from the CEO of the world’s largest carpet manufacturer who suggests that he & others may be going to jail soon if they keep this up).
. . * Fast-forward to 2:20 *
FOR ALL SORTS OF REASONS, WE NEED TO ELIMINATE “PERSONHOOD” LEGAL STATUS FOR CORPORATIONS. Giant corporations have amassed way to much power over our lives and government. They’ve gained countless rights but do not have corresponding responsibilities. They are UNACCOUNTABLE and therefore dangerous and destructive in their current form in many cases.
One of the credos of huge corporations is to “privatize the profits and socialize the losses.” So pollution become an “externality”, an expense they force the public to pay for (cleanup, healthcare, suffering of current generation, suffering of future generations etc.). This will get worse, not better, over time if we do not act.
Don’t be fooled by gauzy expensive TV ad campaigns that put a supposedly friendly face on monolithic corporations. Big corporations don’t care that the policies they are pursuing are hollowing out the middle class, endangering the earth and potentially sentencing our grandkids to a dystopian future. All corporations care about is their bottom line and quarterly earnings. They don’t care that human suffering is at an all-time high while the stock market is flourishing. Human happiness or well-being don’t show up anywhere in their calculations.
Wal Mart (America’s largest employer) for example, doesn’t care that it fails to pay a living wage to its employees and that U.S. tax payers end up footing the bill ($6.2 billion every year) for the survival of those employees. Because of low pay, those workers need food and healthcare subsidies just to survive. Why on earth are we giving Wal Mart $6.2 billion a year? The Wal Mart family is so rich that they are actually worth more than 40% of the American population COMBINED.
If huge corporations are people, they are clearly dangerous psychopaths with no regard for the well-being of others.
The film “The Corporation” has a great section on how corporations won “personhood status” in the first place. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SuUzmqBewg . Fast-forward to 2:20.
This clip is only a couple of minutes long and it will blow your mind. The 14th amendment was supposed to give equal rights to African Americans. It said you “can’t deprive a person of life, liberty or property without due process of law”. Corporation lawyers wanted corporations to have more power so they basically said “corporations are people.” Amazingly, between 1890 and 1910 there were 307 cases brought before the court under the 14th amendment. 288 of these brought by corporations and only 19 by African Americans. 600,000 people were killed to get rights for people and then judges applied those rights to capital and property while stripping them from people. It’s time to set this straight.
Also, check out this stunning admission by the CEO of the Interface Carpets, the largest carpet manufacturer in the world (30 second clip):
Clear Blue Sky 