4 ms·

Corporations are not people. What a single person does while not affecting anyone else is nobody’s business, but what companies do affects a lot of people, henc

Corporations are not people. What a single person does while not affecting anyone else is nobody’s business, but what companies do affects a lot of people, hence it is other peoples’ business.

blacksmith_tb 2y ago
I wish that were true, but in the US at least[1], it isn't cut and dried. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood#In_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood#In_the_Un...
scripturial 2y ago
This is simplistic thinking. Companies can’t do anything. People do things, sometimes as a functioning part of an organization. Companies don’t decide to cut down trees for profit, people decide to take that action. When you say “a company is damaging the environment” you’re allowing a person to hide anonymously under the veil of a legal entity. Companies can’t do anything. Only people do things.
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
  Seems to me the solution is end the liability shield incorporations provides.
  - mattmaroon 2y ago
    That would be a great way to tank the economy.
  - lazide 2y ago
    Then anyone with money will be too afraid to invest or operate a corporation. Rapid, screeching halt to the economy.
    - scripturial 2y ago
      To carry through the analogy, yes, people should be afraid to deliberately and intentionally knowingly conduct illegal activity under the guise of a company.
      - lazide 2y ago
        Liability shields aren’t about knowingly committing illegal activity. They don’t protect against that. You can’t just form a company and hire people to rob banks or whatever. Companies are to shield people from unknowingly or accidentally causing damage or committing a crime, and losing more than the capital already invested. Think situations like ‘I hired a driver, and he got drunk when I wasn’t looking and accidentally ran someone over’. Without a liability shield, every investor or manager/owner of that company could lose everything, even if there was no way they could have known or prevented the problem - except by literally not having done business at all.

Corporations are not people. What a single person does while not affecting anyone else is nobody’s business, but what companies do affects a lot of people, hence it is other peoples’ business.

blacksmith_tb 2y ago

I wish that were true, but in the US at least[1], it isn't cut and dried. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood#In_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood#In_the_Un...

scripturial 2y ago

This is simplistic thinking. Companies can’t do anything. People do things, sometimes as a functioning part of an organization. Companies don’t decide to cut down trees for profit, people decide to take that action. When you say “a company is damaging the environment” you’re allowing a person to hide anonymously under the veil of a legal entity. Companies can’t do anything. Only people do things.

HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
Seems to me the solution is end the liability shield incorporations provides.
- mattmaroon 2y ago
  That would be a great way to tank the economy.
- lazide 2y ago
  Then anyone with money will be too afraid to invest or operate a corporation. Rapid, screeching halt to the economy.
  - scripturial 2y ago
    To carry through the analogy, yes, people should be afraid to deliberately and intentionally knowingly conduct illegal activity under the guise of a company.
    - lazide 2y ago
      Liability shields aren’t about knowingly committing illegal activity. They don’t protect against that. You can’t just form a company and hire people to rob banks or whatever. Companies are to shield people from unknowingly or accidentally causing damage or committing a crime, and losing more than the capital already invested. Think situations like ‘I hired a driver, and he got drunk when I wasn’t looking and accidentally ran someone over’. Without a liability shield, every investor or manager/owner of that company could lose everything, even if there was no way they could have known or prevented the problem - except by literally not having done business at all.