Provocative Thought: Should Corporations Have the Same Rights as Citizens?
A famous American once said: “I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country…corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” - Abraham Lincoln, 1864
Years ago, I became familiar with an organization called POCLAD. POCLAD is an acronym for “Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy”. This is a small organization that invites people to engage in this thought: giant corporations actually govern this country. In the Constitution of the United States, they (corporations) are delegated no authority to make our laws and define our culture. In fact, they are not recognized at all. Corporations have no constitutions, no bills of rights. So when corporations govern, democracy flies out the door.
The quote from Lincoln seems as relevant today as it was 145 years ago – maybe more relevant.
Is there any question that Mega-corporations dominate global politics, our lives, our government, our work, our healthcare and our food supply? Media conglomerates set the limits of public discussion, commercialize our national consciousness, and manipulate mainstream public opinion to their own ends. Those of us who pick juries see the results of this manipulation every time we go to the Courthouse for voir dire. The disrespect for the Court and the judicial process didn’t spring out of thin air. A steady diet of this disrespect can be heard on major corporate “news” outlets almost every night. (Although I must admit, it is probably reinforced by some types of attorney advertising).
There is also the issue of ecology – the trendy phrase now is “global warming”. POCLAD makes the argument that the earth’s complex ecology is endangered by corporations since people are exhorted to consume more in the name of “growth” so big companies can get bigger. Ergo, the housing glut fostered by large real estate development corporations raping the land.
Banks that wanted to “expand” without proper limits on loans and investments, and investment corporations that redefined the term “speculation” with a secondary market for mortgage backed securities and “unregulated” insuring of securities’ transactions in London and unrestricted mining and drilling all are contributing to a systemic alteration of the individuals’ role (loss of power) versus the corporate role in the protection of our environment.
Did you know that –
a. Of the world’s 10 largest economic entities, well over 50% are global corporations, the rest are countries.
b. The richest 1% of Americans own over 40% of all U.S. assets.
c. The corporate share of taxes paid has fallen from 33% in the 1940’s to 15% in the 1990’s. Individuals’ share of taxes has risen from 44% to 73%.
d. The World Trade Organization effectively grants corporations veto power over what is left of U.S. environmental and labor laws.
Joint stock companies have been around since the 1400’s, but in Dartmouth College v. Woodward, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, Marshall declared the corporation (Dartmouth College) to be “an artificial being, invisible, intangible and existing only in contemplation of the law.” (1819). In 1868 in Paul v. Virginia, 8 Wall 168, it was ruled that corporations are not citizens within the meaning of the Constitution’s Article IV, Section 2; the term “citizens” as therein used applies only to natural persons, members of the body politic, owing allegiance to the state, not to artificial persons created by the legislature…
What happened, then, to elicit warnings about abuse of corporate power from persons as diverse as President Eisenhower (military industrial complex power must be guarded against) to FDR – “the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state…”?
