Corporations: Individual Profit Wthout Individual Responsibility

“The idea that a corporation is a legal person with constitutional rights is, of course, a controversial one. Some commentators argue that it's bad policy. In my view, however, it is a well-settled principle of US constitutional law and justifiably so. The legislative history of the Fourteenth Amendment suggests that Congress substituted the word ''person'' for the word ''citizen'' precisely so that the provisions so affected would protect not just natural persons but also legal persons, such as corporations, from oppressive legislation.”

Should Corporations be Considered People? The recent uproar over whether corporations are people comes from the Citizens United decision. Although we often hear about how this case allows an influx of corporate funds, it is safe to assume that very few people have actually read the opinion. And though the direct and indirect impact on the lives and liberties of the people will forever be affected by allowing corporate influence on their own governing, most go about their daily consumption with barely a thought to the immense impact this has on the land of the free.

“A corporation is an artificial person separate and distinct from its owners.” Briefly explain this statement.

The idea that corporations should have no rights simply because the Framers felt it should be so on the grounds of an old grudge is preposterous. As previously stated, corporations, like unions, are composed of the people, and the people have undeniable rights allotted to them by the Constitution.

Corporations know that hiring illegal immigrants can result in a much lower labor cost, but at a cost of ethics. They know that hiring an American to do labor is going to cost them a lot more, and since they’re American, they can report mistreatment to authorities. Illegal workers can’t do that unless they want to be deported afterwards, so why not screw them over? It’s easy money for corporations. I’m not justifying it, but who should get punish? The corporation for willing and knowing hiring undocumented workers or the workers themselves? Maybe, both?

Corporations can be large or small but they all have some sort of ethical impact on their employees, shareholders, customers, community, and surrounding environments. Richard DeGeorge writes, “We can speak of corporations having moral responsibilities to act in certain ways, and they are morally responsible for the consequences of their actions on people.” (p. 200). Large corporations are comprised of the board of directors, management, and their workers. They also deal with suppliers, customers, and have competitors. This essay will examine the moral responsibilities within a corporation.

The idea of corporate personhood is not a few fangled idea brought on with the start of the 21st Century. The idea of protecting the rights of people associated with a corporation is far from new. Supreme Court decisions dating back over 200 years have blurred the lines between individual rights and the rights of corporations. The more recent cases Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores and Citizens United v. FEC are just a few of the recent case that have ruled in favor of expanding corporate personhood. However, there have been over fifteen major Supreme Court decisions that have changed the way corporations are viewed in the eyes of the law.

A corporation was originally designed to allow for the forming of a group to get a single project done, after which it would be disbanded. At the end of the Civil War, the 14th amendment was passed in order to protect the rights of former slaves. At this point, corporate lawyers worked to define a corporation as a “person,” granting them the right to life, liberty and property. Ever since this distinction was made, corporations have become bigger and bigger, controlling many aspects of the economy and the lives of Americans. Corporations are not good for America because they outsource jobs, they lie and deceive, and they knowingly make and sell products that can harm people and animals, all in order to raise profits.

In the book, The Corporation Joel Bakan presents arguments, that corporations are nothing but institutional pathological psychopaths that are “a dangerous possessor of the great power it wields over people and societies.” Their main responsibility is maximizing profit for their stockholders and ignoring the means to achieve this goal, portrays them as “psychopathic.” Bakan argues that, corporations are psychopaths, corporate social responsibility is illegal, and that corporations are able to manipulate anyone, even the government.

Should major corporations be guilty of criminal acts? Should the people under their supervision be charged as well?

As a general rule of thumb, shareholders of US corporations are not personally liable for the debts, taxes, obligations or actions of the corporation in which they are a member. This shield from personally liability is known as the corporate veil. The corporate veil, a cornerstone of American corporate law, derives from the fact that corporations in America are regarded as legal personalities, distinct and separate from their shareholders; a concept that gives a little context to the now infamous “Corporations are people!” “blunder” by former presidential candidate Mitt Romney during the 2012 election cycle. The corporate veil also protects parent companies from the debts, taxes, and obligations of subsidiaries. This protection is hailed by many scholars in the area of corporate law because it is believed to be an encouraging factor in the formation new business, which helps to develop and maintain a healthy economy. While it is true and widely accepted that under certain circumstances corporate entities should be regarded as separate and distinct from their individual shareholders, it is also true and accepted that sometimes this concept of separate and distinct should be disregarded by the courts in the interest of preventing fraud or injustice to third parties.

My second point as to why they should not be protected is because companies and corporation are not people. The definition of a corporation now is “a body formed and authorised by law to act as a single person although constituted by one or more persons and legally endowed with various rights and duties including the capacity of succession” (Merriam-Webster). Another main reason companies are allowed by law to call themselves and act as people is because of legal personality (which is “the quality or state of being a person” (Merriam-Webster) or corporate personhood. Even when you read these terms, though, “legal” and “corporate” are still in play. Before this case even happened “the moment the 14th amendment was passed in 1868, lawyers for

In the Encyclopaedia of White-Collar Crime, co-authors Jurg Gerber and Eric. L Jensen define corporate crime as “violations of federal or state laws that are committed by employees on behalf of the company rather than simply for their own gain.” The definition and classification of what falls under a corporate crime is highly problematic in that corporations can afford defence lawyers that can find loopholes in the legislation in order to avoid charges. Even more perplexing, is that “corporations define the laws under which they live” according to Russell Mokhiber report’s Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the Decade (1996) published in the Corporate Crime Reporter. Mokhiber introduces the example that “the automobile industry... has worked its will on Congress to block legislation that would impose criminal sanctions on knowing and wilful

A Corporation can be defined as a legal creation, however the corporation itself, would only exist on a piece of paper. A corporation will never die a natural death like humans die naturally, and corporations will always outlive the individual who created it. With that said, the corporation itself is never really committed to any employee or committed to any neighbor. However, a corporation can always demand employees, a corporation can always demand taxes that are extremely high, and a corporation can also restrict environmental laws. Corporations hold a great deal of power in today's society.

Since corporations are not physical things or people, it is very easy for them to avoid any kind of trouble. Corporations have become great at passing on their externalities to the public. An externality is an expense of any kind, whether it is something such as environmental damage or forcing people in an area to pay money for something, that a corporation forces the public to pay for while they privatize all profits. Corporations being externalizing machines fit in very well with their psychopathic behavior. They externalize any cost to the public because they can and it helps them achieve their goal of making as much money as possible. A quote from Robert Monks puts it very well, he says “The corporation is an externalizing machine