Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for president against Barack Obama, has gotten himself into some hot water by making the bold statement that corporations are people. Apparently some people are under the impression that corporations are run by robots, aliens, or Oompa-Loompas. Although it could be argued that Oompa-Loompas are people too, so please hold off on the racism™ accusations.
Without people, corporations are just empty boardrooms, factories, trading floors, and storefronts. Corporations are comprised of shareholders, boards of directors, or sole proprietors. They are made up of employees, and they cater to customers looking to buy a product or service. Corporations are people any way you look at them.
This is a good thing. People can anticipate the wants and needs to the market (also comprised of people, by the way), and act accordingly. People read bottom lines and assess cost/benefit ratios, hire and supervise employees, and create things for other people to purchase.
Corporations have a mission and a purpose, and see themselves as members of the community to serve the common good -- else they cease to exist. They have a purpose and have a mission statement. They exist to satisfy our needs and wants.
If companies aren’t people working hard, making decisions, and creating things, then what are they? Job trees are as elusive as money trees. Jobs don’t come from that mythical orchard or from the government -- they come from corporations.
President Obama proposed Monday that the Bush-era tax cuts for individuals making over $250,000 a year be rescinded. 894,000 of those individuals are essentially corporations. They take profits from their corporations in the form of income. If the government taxes income from corporations through people ... then corporations are indeed people.
Too many people have drawn a caricature of the corporation in their heads -- a behemoth Uncle Scrooge sitting atop a pile of money and doing absolutely nothing all day. The truth is that these companies provide the vast majority of jobs for the American people, and provide useful products and services for the public at market value.
Nothing wrong with that.
This post is part of a weekly conversation with our Moms Matter 2012 political bloggers. To see the original question and what the other writers have to say, see Are Corporations People?
Image via Jerome/Flickr
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Comments 21
Can a corporation be put in jail? Executed? Locked into a mental facility against its will? Can it hold office? Does a corporation have to attend school? Does it need a passport to leave the country?
No?
Rico, I was going to say the same thing, but you said it much better.
Any way we look at it, Jen, your view of corporations as demigods and benevolent benefactors is... creepy. And do you not see how you are so willing to turn over the car keys to your life into the hands of corporations so you will be taken care of by them, is the very same demabloguery you criticize your liberal foes for? Really, you are blind as a bat!
Whats the difference between a country that depends on corporations or goverment? None. Your still depending on a higher power to provide jobs, healthcare and all means to live. So, whats the big fucking deal? blame who ever you want. Blame corporations for screwing up this country. Which they did but also blame the goverment for allowing it. What this country need is a balance between goverment and corporations. Where corporations can thrive in a fair way. Where their workers have a fair pay that will prevent them from going on goverment assistant. The gorverment needs to regulate how corporations work or else the people will be nothing but slaves. You cant let either have more power than the other. Because that is disaster. disaster we saw when the economy collapsed because the big corporate guys fucked up and their mess is being picked up by the people while they still have billionaire and trillionaire bank accounts we keep working and paying off their debt.
Uh-uh, Rico (and Todd): you had me up until the 'jobs' part. The difference is corporations' sole reason for existence is for its own benefit. 'Jobs' just happen to be the unfortunate 'overhead' part, and would do without that gladly if they could. Further, much of the 'demand' is artificially created thru marketing, again, for its own benefit. It is not in the DNA of a corporation to be of benefit to people, as the consumers or the employees.
Because if the natural order in the symbiosis of consumer and production, supply and demand, were truly the foundation, everyone would be employed. With real people, not calculated moves towards extinction thru job-replacing robotics, or going overseas.