What are "corporations" if not people?

[bripat9643]

It's True: Corporations Are People
What else could they be?
Buildings don't hire people.
Buildings don't design cars that run on electricity or discover drug therapies to defeat cancer.

Elizabeth Warren introduced President Obama at a big fundraiser in Boston:
"Mitt Romney tells us, in his own words, he believes corporations are people. No, Mitt, corporations are NOT people," she pronounced. "People have hearts. They have kids. They get jobs. They get sick. They love and they cry and they dance. They live and they die. Learn the difference." The audience went wild.
Jack Welch and Suzy Welch: It's True—Corporations Are People - WSJ.com

Ms. Warren.. who makes corporate decisions? Computers? Buildings? Oil wells?
Seriously .. what else but "people" make those decisions? NOT corporations!

So when corporations kill people can we execute them? Put them in prison maybe? Slap their wrists?

(where the hell are those wrists?)

Can you give us an example of a corporation killing people?

 

[Truthmatters]

already answered you fool

 

[The T]

already answered you fool

Where?

 

[Dick Tuck]

It's really sick that these right wing loonies are arguing now that they like the idea of having large corporations design their political destiny. Are these the same tin foilers that used to complain about the "one world government"?

 

[Truthmatters]

is a car lease a person?

Its a lease dumb ass. It is neither a person or corp.

its a legal contract just like an incorporation

 

[Truthmatters]

It's really sick that these right wing loonies are arguing now that they like the idea of having large corporations design their political destiny. Are these the same tin foilers that used to complain about the "one world government"?

Its because they place party over country.


they want to win at any cost.

its why they back the cheating of the republican party in elections

 

[Mac1958]

.

Once again, congratulations to the OP for getting this thread up within 12 minutes of the time Rush said it.

Gotta love it.

For the record, a corporation is a legal entity.

.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

The main problem with corporations as people is that they apparently have free speech too but they are the ones who get to use a megaphone. They get to be the squeakiest wheel in all cases, even the ones that do not directly effect them.

But couldn't you make the same claim about any group of people who pool their money for political action? Are you opposed to people combining their efforts for political change in general? Or just when those people share ownership of a business? Should individual business owners be silenced as well?

there are huge differences between corporations and other groups of citizens

 

[Truthmatters]

If they are "people" as you claim they are then I want haliburton put to death for electrocuting our troops in Iraq

here

 

[dblack]

She's right. Corporations are not people. The Supreme Court ruled incorrectly.

Are unions people? Is the Sierra club people?

They are corporations.

What liberals believe is too stupid for words to describe.

I don't think it's necessarily stupid. Just a different way of looking at it. The reality is 'corporate personhood' is a really bad metaphor and gets twisted whichever you want to twist it. Corporations are just businesses that operate under an explicit charter with special rules applied to them. They're not individual 'people', but they are owned and operated by people. Rather that debating the true meaning of a bad metaphor, we'd be better served discussing the specific rules that apply to corporations and considering whether they are warranted or not.

 

[bripat9643]

If corporations are people then they are people who continually shirk their responsibilities, easily over ride the interests of actual people, cause damage to society and the environment far in excess of what a single person could do and are practically impossible to punish for their wrong doings. If a person such as that lived next door you would hate their stinking guts.

What "responsibilities? How do they "override" anyone's interests? How do they cause damage to society? Everyone damages the environment, so why should corporations be treated any differently than anyone else? It's very easy to punish corporations. The government does it all the time. So do private individuals.

You live right next door to all kinds of corporations. Did you know the grocery store on the corner is part of a corporation? The power lines in back of your house are also owned by a corporation.

 

[Truthmatters]

I want haliburton tried and executed for the death of 11 rig workers in the gulf spill

here

 

[Truthmatters]

If corporations are people how is it fair those people get to have the rights as people and the rights as corporations too?


that gives the "people" who are the corporations extra rights non corporation people dont get.


dont you get that

Actually--corporations do not have full citizenship
They can contribute to a campaign, but they cannot vote.
Who is the corporation is a more trying question.

Is it the owners, the Ceo and the managaing board--does it include all persons that either work or own part of the corporation? Who in the corp decides who to contribute to and why?

I find the above questions interesting but not problematic in terms of corporations contributing to a campaign if all people concerned are american citizens themselves.

I find it no different than Unions contributiiong to campaigns. The difference I see is that one entity is for-profit, and the other supposed to be non-profit. You have to tell us why a for-profit organization should be barred from contributing to a campaign. Not explain how corps are different from individual citizens.

In many ways, the argument you pose about Corps can be levied at Unions and other non-profiorgs--should they also be banned from contributiing?

yes it is a good point and it elivates the conversation.



if it is a non profit it should be allowed to give unless it is religiously tied.


otherwise you cant have seperation of church and state.

For profit entities dont have the countrys best interest in heart.

They place profit over country.

churches place church over county.


Unions have ONLY one purpose and that is to protect workers.


I dont think you can rationally say Unions place anything but people over country.

since the country was designed as being of , for and by the people that is NOT a conflict of interst is it.

here

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Can you give us an example of a corporation killing people?

A Perth crane company has been found guilty of causing the death of a worker by failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace.

please get a life?

 

[Dick Tuck]

She's right. Corporations are not people. The Supreme Court ruled incorrectly.

Are unions people? Is the Sierra club people?

They are corporations.

What liberals believe is too stupid for words to describe.

You're a fucking idiot. I've never argued that the unions or the Sierra club were individuals. I had no problem with policy position advocacy that the unions, Sierra, or Exxon took. Let their owners/members worry about that. I do have a problem with them becoming involved in candidate advocacy.

If Exxon wanted to spend money telling us that the historic levels of CO2 is good for our planet, fine. They were lying scum, but that was their right. When the Koch Brothers now want to put out ads that endorse or attack specific candidates, without any accountability, that's fucking with our republic, and that's not fine.

Now go back to sleep and see if you can think of an argument that makes sense.

 

[Buford]

Corporations have a legal personage. This means that a corporation can be sued in court and can defend themselves. Corporate activity can be regulated. Corporations pay taxes, and when the money is distributed, the people who receive it must also pay taxes which is corporate double taxation.

If corporations had no legal rights, they would not have any legal obligations either. There would be no corporate legal obligation not to pollute a waterway for instance. No one could sue a corporation. A corporation could not commit a criminal act. Most importantly, they could not be taxed at all. None of the profits made in foreign countries would be subject to a cent of tax.

It doesn't give the people in corporations rights extra rights. They have the same rights as everyone else, one of which is to be able to sue a corporation for wrongdoing without actually having to identify who, in that corporation, did anything wrong.

Corporations as legal entities have standing in the courts. They are not people.

A corporation gets taxed. When people in a corporation get taxed, it is as individual separate from the corporation. The individual tax is not a tax on the corporation.

There is no such thing as a double corporate taxation. The double taxation argument is an imaginary construct meant to confuse and distort.

In the court system: Justice is blind. Evidence can be thrown out as inadmissible. Not guilty does not equal innocent in our system. Legal entities are not people.

You're a liar. The USSC said corporations are people. Next.

 

[bripat9643]

She's right. Corporations are not people. The Supreme Court ruled incorrectly.

I have YET to see a corporation physically sign a document. Write a check.

Designated officers of the corporations sign the documents, dipshit.

Why do liberals think pretending to be stupid makes a convincing argument?

 

[Buford]

She's right. Corporations are not people. The Supreme Court ruled incorrectly.

Are unions people? Is the Sierra club people?

They are corporations.

What liberals believe is too stupid for words to describe.

You're a fucking idiot. I've never argued that the unions or the Sierra club were individuals. I had no problem with policy position advocacy that the unions, Sierra, or Exxon took. Let their owners/members worry about that. I do have a problem with them becoming involved in candidate advocacy.

If Exxon wanted to spend money telling us that the historic levels of CO2 is good for our planet, fine. They were lying scum, but that was their right. When the Koch Brothers now want to put out ads that endorse or attack specific candidates, without any accountability, that's fucking with our republic, and that's not fine.

Now go back to sleep and see if you can think of an argument that makes sense.

And Romney is a felon.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

She's right. Corporations are not people. The Supreme Court ruled incorrectly.

Are unions people? Is the Sierra club people?

They are corporations.

What liberals believe is too stupid for words to describe.

I don't think it's necessarily stupid. Just a different way of looking at it. The reality is 'corporate personhood' is a really bad metaphor and gets twisted whichever you want to twist it. Corporations are just businesses that operate under an explicit charter with special rules applied to them. They're not individual 'people', but they are owned and operated by people.

Rather that debating the true meaning of a bad metaphor, we'd be better served discussing the specific rules that apply to corporations and considering whether they are warranted or not.

Exactly, but most of the people here are fundamentally incapable of doing this.

 

[ConzHateUSA]

She's right. Corporations are not people. The Supreme Court ruled incorrectly.

What I absolutely love are the idiot baggers on this and other websites defending that highly activist supreme court and their decision to eliminate democracy once and for all

these idiot baggers actually think it is a good thing