4 ms·

Retaliation is all too common in corporate even if people recognize it or not.

• amelius 3y ago
  "Corporations don't have emotions and only act in the interest of profit."
  • passwordoops 3y ago
    And somehow this makes them legal persons in the eyes of US law
    • bornfreddy 3y ago
      Legal persons that can't go to prison if they commit crimes.
      • amelius 3y ago
        Maybe they are treated as an incapacitated person by law.
        • pxeger1 3y ago
          In that case they shouldn’t be able to sign contracts
      • hinkley 3y ago
        Or receive the death penalty for killing people. When incorporation was at the King’s Leisure, we at least had that.
    • cscurmudgeon 3y ago
      Didn't this happen in the EU which is 5000 years ahead of the planet?
      • fsniper 3y ago
        That's why it's reported, followed up and punished. And not in the cracks of history. Also let's note that he company doing this is a US company which doesn't really consider itself as subject to EU law.
    • tomoyoirl 3y ago
      They’re treated as persons because they’re owned by persons, and it’s a lot easier to refer to the legal fiction than it is to invoke the legal rights of all the owners (whoever they may be). A programmer should recognize a useful form of encapsulation. The abstraction breaks under some circumstances. For instance, they get no voting rights (as voting can’t be done collectively by a group).
      • advael 3y ago
        Then why does criminal liability not propogate to the owners? We have a good mechanism for that in criminal law, it's called "conspiracy"
      • kelnos 3y ago
        The problem is that they're afforded some important "person" rights, without many of the restrictions or responsibilities. Corporate malfeasance is punished much more leniently than personal malfeasance. Fines are usually wrist-slaps (and treated as a cost of doing business), and it's very difficult to hold executives and board members personally accountable for what are ultimately their actions. And yes, corporations don't get votes, but they do get to have an outsized influence on the votes of others through campaign donations.
  • Eddy_Viscosity2 3y ago
    Corporation don't and can't act. They are pieces of paper. It's people who do things, often evil things. Corporations are shields against accountability of these people. This protection for liability is the entire raison d'etre of corporations. Any discussion about making things better has to focus on returning accountability to the people that do bad things. Without that, nothing will change.