Thursday, August 11, 2011

Corporations are NOT people

Today, Mitt Romney was on the campaign trail and said that we cannot raise taxes to fix our budgetary problems. When someone suggested that we could raise taxes on corporations, Mr. Romney said, "corporations are people, my friend." See the relevant clip from his speech here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ8w4ZBXUbo.

The statement itself doesn't surprise me. The American gospel is that large corporations are what make our country great - they pay taxes, they provide people with jobs, and they are at the forefront of the innovation that made America great. What surprises me is that a representative of the American state, in an improvisational moment, actually spoke aloud the offensive position that corporations have attained the status of human beings.

What rights do these new human beings have? In a conflict between the rights of actual human beings and corporate human beings, who wins? I think we all know the answer.

This election season, I would like to propose a voter drive to elect Walmart, or McDonald's, or Halliburton to political office. What better way to make the gradual decay of individual rights, in order to make way for the depositories of vast wealth, explicit?

Exxon for Congress! Apple, Inc. for governor! Dupont for State Senate!

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