>>>> They are conceived basically as a practical shorthand for dealing with a group of people who want to jointly own property, conduct business, incur debts, a

>>>> They are conceived basically as a practical shorthand for dealing with a group of people who want to jointly own property, conduct business, incur debts, and so on. In my view, that's called a partnership. The defining entitlement for a corporation is limitation of liability for shareholders. If you own stock in Chrysler Corporation, and they can't pay their debts, their creditors can't come to your house and auction off your belongings. It's a transfer of risk from investors to creditors. Another way of looking at it, is that there's an artificial price floor of zero on a share of Chrysler stock. This is not true for a sole proprietorship or general partnership. And natural people have different rules for when they can't pay their debts, thanks to bankruptcy law. Society grants this entitlement because we expect to receive a share of the benefits, at the very least in the form of higher overall prosperity. I have a strong hunch that without liability limitation, it would not be possible to raise capital for great ventures that make things like steel, airplanes, telecommunications, or computer chips. The typical "large" business would be something like a small factory or retail store.