In a scant half a century, there will be no more corporations. We will not allow such evil to exist in our world. And, by evil, i do not mean the big corporations who put profits over people's lives, or seem to write fine-print in their contracts that make your life hell. I will be talking about the evil that is corpse-oration. The legaleses behind making a dead thing living. And then the placing of it above men.
You can threaten a man with the death penalty. You cannot threaten a corpse with the death penalty.
In fact, the way that a corporation is set up, and the way that business works, there is nothing you can do to a corporation.
So, how do we let this disparity exist? Where you have a man competing against a corporation and the law thinks this is fair.
(I am using "man" herein because it is a legal term, it has nothing to do with sex/gender and being against one or for the other. Human means something that has the hue of man. (see the color of law) A monster, that looks like a man. A corporation is a human. A monster is something that is created by men, similar to Frankenstein's monster)
You can't punish a corporation
We have to think on this carefully, because we have made a horrifying mistake in the application of law.
The worst thing that can be done to a corporation is that it gets ripped up, shredded, thrown in a fire to be burnt. It is a piece of paper. The piece of paper feels nothing.
Let's say that a corporation is shut down because it was found to be infringing on someone's patent, and lost in court. And now owe the inventor a million dollars. Well, that doesn't apply to the people who were stealing the invention, just the piece of paper. So, the piece of paper goes bankrupt, the inventor gets a pittance from the sales (auction) of whatever was left in the corporation (they knew they were going to lose the court case, so they removed all the assets). Boy! Did that show the corporation who's boss! And the invention stealer, moves across the street, and opens up business under another corporation and starts their stealing again. Nothing was really done.
A corporation is usually just fined. We here of big banks being fined all the time. But, to a corporation, a fine is not a deterrent, it is just a statement that "this" is legal, for a price.
Further, the fine is not paid by the corporation. It is paid by the customers of that corporation. (the only place a business gets money)
Wells Fargone got fined for stealing their client's money. So, more money was taken from their clients to pay the govern-cement. What great justice! Not!!!!
In the industry, it is not called fines, it is called "profit sharing". You know, like paying off the cops. They want their share of the profit.
Corporations Externalize Cost and Internalize Gains
If, just before the corporation gets forced into bankruptcy, it can take out a million dollar loan, and pay its CEO and VPs some big bonuses. Just before closing its doors.
And, legally, the world just gets to suck it. (there are ways to "pierce the veil", where legally those sewing can go after the corporation owners directly, but that is only doable if it is SHOWN that they did bad things knowingly. Taking out a loan, is not wrong)
Further, imagine a corporation dumped a lot of toxic waste. It might cost millions of dollars to clean up, but all you can get out of the corporation is how much money they have on hand. Which is usually not very much, because each year they give most of it away to the shareholders and top employees. The corporation cannot be forced to clean up their mess. The employees of said corporation can just quit. The money just disappears (there are a million ways to do this legally). So, are you going to hold that piece of paper at gunpoint while it goes and cleans up the mess it made just lays there, like an inanimate object.
So, again, the world just has to suck it.
The profit can easily be channelled to the people who control the corporation. And the expenses get to be sucked up by the world.
You cannot work for two bosses
A CEO of a corporation has to balance two groups. The shareholders and the customers. The shareholders want dividends. And legally, the CEO needs to maximize profits. So, if there is ever a conflict between doing what is best for the customers, or doing what is best for the shareholders, the choice has to be profit.
A business should be all about the customer. That is their source of income. That should be their reason for existing.
But, in a corporation, the reasons are turned upside down, and turned against the world.
A business that is greedy, and prioritizes profits, would go out of business as the people found out about its ways. However, now, since all big businesses have to be incorporated, all you get is a choice of which greedy corporation you want to work with.
This is not something we should allow into our world.
Corporations started off by allowing a company to get out of paying for the people they got killed. (This is about Kings and sailing ships) If the cargo ship completed its voyage, the company got a big profit. If the ship didn't make it, all the families of the sailors, who were legally supposed to get paid, got bubkis, as the corporation folded.
Today, we have given corporations rights, as if they were a man. However, we failed to give them the punishments that go along with violating the rights of others.
In the future, we will not deal with a business that is not doing its best to be good. To not pollute. To treat the people that work there well. To be good for the community it is a part of (and not just because it hires workers). Corporations who willingly pollute will have no customers. Corporations who do not treat their workers well, will lose their customers. And this will have a lot more meaning then just paying them well.
So, since corporations are evil to the core, none of the big corporations that exist today will continue to exist.
And soon, the laws will reflect this view.