If Corporations Are People, They Should Act Like It | Hacker News Reader

If Corporations Are People, They Should Act Like It

theatlantic.com

5 pointsdevin3 comments

I'm personally against corporate personhood... I think there should be limits on rights of a corporation, and that there should be methods in place to restrict the actions of corporations to better benefit society... that doesn't mean socialism, I mean eliminating corporate taxes, adding in international currency exchange tariffs and excise taxes, and encouraging companies to either reinvest, diversify or payout dividends...

Holding onto liquid or even un/under-used fixed assets doesn't benefit society. Part of the social contract allowing for the limited liability of companies is to benefit society with collective opportunities. With the ever-expanding IP restrictions, and even the premise of "corporate personhood" that is exceeded.

Then again, I'm pretty libertarian minded, and feel that ensuring competition is one of the most important things we can do for society.

After a lot of back-and-forth with people who decry the idea of corporate personhood, and those who support it, I've decided to post one of the few articles I've read that manages to maintain some semblance of balance. This article has produced a good number of _quality_ debates in the circles I've shared it. I hope others will find it similarly enlightening and useful.

It sounds like we need a special category. He thinks corporations should be partial persons. I wonder what fraction he'd pick?

He's got many good points that are a helpful education on the topic, like pointing out that since the 5% owns 2/3 of all stocks, "shareholder rights" really means the interests of the wealthiest. That's probably not what progressives are trying to champion and probably betrays their lack of understanding of the subject.

I feel like this topic is related to the hypothetical discussion of how we should handle long-lived or immortal people. Since corporations persist for much longer than humans they can act on the same goal(s) for a destabilizing period of time.

If corporations are treated more like people, if they have a "conscience," then how do they define and update it?

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