if a corporation is a person, then (interview, ethical, legal)
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so it's been a few weeks since my last post, thread, etc
i've been reading about sociopaths/psychopaths. interesting stuff. it ties into an awesome interview I heard with Paul Babiak, author of "Snakes in Suits".
A premise of the book is that top executives and wall streeters exhibit many psychopathic traits.
how does this relate to corporations, well this author summed it up nicely from a past documentary movie that asked the question: if corporations are people, then what kind of person is the corporation?
There's a lot in the article that will make many conservatives or true believers in capitalism upset but that's par for the course if you challenge the basic tenets of capitalism.
I will agree with your conclusion that a corporation is a murderously compulsive psychopath. According to the rules of business the primary purpose of a corporation is to make money for its owners. The ideal way of achieving this is to destroy or merge with all the competing corporations in your market and form a large enough block to become effectively a monopoly to control both your costs for raw materials and the selling price. Investor's returns are maximized in a monopoly situation. The Wall-mart Corporation is a classic example of a corporate psychopath attempting to replace another in the retail markets.
In addition to being psychotic these “people” are immortal until killed off by another similarly psychopathic entity. There are some European corporations that have existed in one form or another for over 1,000 years. Corporations can outlive governments and do not have the moral, ethical and legal restrictions placed on many governments. Our SCOTUS, IMHO, made a horrible mistake by deciding the business arrangements, created to minimize risk to the participants, have the same rights as living humans. The court has created a monster that may destroy our government and our society in its never ending lust for ever more money.
agree GregW. for all those afraid of a "one world government" aka/ala the UN, you need look no further than the consortium of global corporations and their in-bed financial partners - we live under a corporatocracy.
The article raised some other interesting points though, which beg(s) the question(s) of whether capitalism is truly compatible with christianity? or whether it's compatible with a republic, which is the form of government under which we live (not a democracy, which is truly a socialist type of system).
psychopaths: indifferent to others, incapable of guilt, exclusively devoted to their own interests.
How can the support of unfettered capitalism be supported by religion?
How unthinking is the Christian population that they can disregard their own bible so easily?
How totally unscrupulous are those who lead them in this direction?
I will agree with your conclusion that a corporation is a murderously compulsive psychopath.
People are psycopaths - not corporations.
If people break the law - arrest them. Don't make government so big and powerful that people can buy their way out of trouble and therefore be above the law.
First sentence of the article referenced in the OP...
THERE is an ongoing debate in this country about the rich: who they are, what their social role may be, whether they are good or bad.
What this should say is...
We, as a member of the press, are enaging in psychological warfare against Americans who are rich: who they are, what their social role may be, whether they are good or bad.
psychopaths: indifferent to others, incapable of guilt, exclusively devoted to their own interests.
How can the support of unfettered capitalism be supported by religion?
How unthinking is the Christian population that they can disregard their own bible so easily?
How totally unscrupulous are those who lead them in this direction?
I often wonder how and why Jerry Falwell's so-called "moral majority" managed to entrench itself into what was once the Republican party. The party is now RINO only. Of course I've also wondered how so many who claim to be atheists could attach themselves to the party that constantly preaches socialistic and moralistic dogma. This whole world is back-asswards.
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