#48 Humans, Corporations and the Bottom Line
It was a shocker when I discovered that private corporations are human beings with human rights. It’s legally true: in 1886 the Supreme Court ruled that the private corporation is a natural person under the US Constitution and entitled to the protection of the Bill of Rights.
Here’s what I found out: The corporate charter was originally a privilege extended by the state (i.e., the king) to a group of investors to serve a public purpose, as a way of limiting the individual investors’ liability for losses. Charters served at the public pleasure, each with a specific time-limited purpose (like voyaging to the East Indies for spices) and specific privileges and obligations.
Through the mid 1800’s corporate charters in this country were issued sparingly, and states zealously retained their powers to issue and withdraw. They didn’t want corporations getting the kind of monopolist and undemocratic powers enjoyed by the governors of those colonies that had been chartered by the king. After all, we had declared independence from that kind of power!
After the Civil War, however, with big profits to be made and a vacuum in political leadership, corporations were able to buy out whole legislatures and rewrite the laws governing their own creation. States began issuing charters in perpetuity, to do anything not explicitly prohibited by law. A conservative court system protected corporate interests more and more, culminating in that ruling of 1886 that brought them into the human family.
How ironic that this ruling was based on the 14th Amendment—the one that had been passed in 1868 to protect the civil rights and guarantee the citizenship of former slaves! Now, a little more than 100 years later we are in real danger of being enslaved by those very same corporations.
It’s hard to see them as human, hard-wired as they are to the bottom line. Even people who join corporations to do good cannot hold sway against the requirement that profits be maximized. It may be right that human or environmental needs be taken into consideration. It may be the only thing that will save the planet. But the rules aren’t set up for you to do what is right. That could cheat your investors, and make you vulnerable to other corporations that are paying closer attention to the bottom line of today.
One of the central things that makes us human is having aspirations that transcend the bottom line of economic profit and loss. Our bodies need nourishment, but so do our hearts and souls. The Supreme Court of 1886 created a heartless, soulless monster. The largest corporations are now bigger and more powerful than many nation states—and they are protected rather than controlled.
I’d like to go back to the concept of a corporation being chartered by the state to serve a public purpose—a non-human entity at the service of human beings. If we need fuel efficient cars, we charter a corporation to produce them. If we need alternative energy sources, we charter a corporation to develop them. If people want to get together and try to get rich producing things that we don’t need, they can do it on their own.
Alternatively, if we’re stuck with corporations as they are, we could follow Rabbi Michael Lerner’s advice and advocate for time-limited charters that would require them to demonstrate a track record of social responsibility before those charters can be renewed.
In any case, I think we need to take a stand that corporations are not people. Let’s keep human rights for real human beings.
Pamela Haines
Here’s what I found out: The corporate charter was originally a privilege extended by the state (i.e., the king) to a group of investors to serve a public purpose, as a way of limiting the individual investors’ liability for losses. Charters served at the public pleasure, each with a specific time-limited purpose (like voyaging to the East Indies for spices) and specific privileges and obligations.
Through the mid 1800’s corporate charters in this country were issued sparingly, and states zealously retained their powers to issue and withdraw. They didn’t want corporations getting the kind of monopolist and undemocratic powers enjoyed by the governors of those colonies that had been chartered by the king. After all, we had declared independence from that kind of power!
After the Civil War, however, with big profits to be made and a vacuum in political leadership, corporations were able to buy out whole legislatures and rewrite the laws governing their own creation. States began issuing charters in perpetuity, to do anything not explicitly prohibited by law. A conservative court system protected corporate interests more and more, culminating in that ruling of 1886 that brought them into the human family.
How ironic that this ruling was based on the 14th Amendment—the one that had been passed in 1868 to protect the civil rights and guarantee the citizenship of former slaves! Now, a little more than 100 years later we are in real danger of being enslaved by those very same corporations.
It’s hard to see them as human, hard-wired as they are to the bottom line. Even people who join corporations to do good cannot hold sway against the requirement that profits be maximized. It may be right that human or environmental needs be taken into consideration. It may be the only thing that will save the planet. But the rules aren’t set up for you to do what is right. That could cheat your investors, and make you vulnerable to other corporations that are paying closer attention to the bottom line of today.
One of the central things that makes us human is having aspirations that transcend the bottom line of economic profit and loss. Our bodies need nourishment, but so do our hearts and souls. The Supreme Court of 1886 created a heartless, soulless monster. The largest corporations are now bigger and more powerful than many nation states—and they are protected rather than controlled.
I’d like to go back to the concept of a corporation being chartered by the state to serve a public purpose—a non-human entity at the service of human beings. If we need fuel efficient cars, we charter a corporation to produce them. If we need alternative energy sources, we charter a corporation to develop them. If people want to get together and try to get rich producing things that we don’t need, they can do it on their own.
Alternatively, if we’re stuck with corporations as they are, we could follow Rabbi Michael Lerner’s advice and advocate for time-limited charters that would require them to demonstrate a track record of social responsibility before those charters can be renewed.
In any case, I think we need to take a stand that corporations are not people. Let’s keep human rights for real human beings.
Pamela Haines
posted by Pamela Haines | 9:47 PM
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