4 ms·

Let's go with the current situation of corporations having similar rights to people. I'd like to make this proposal: when a corporation dies (goes bankrupt), i

Let's go with the current situation of corporations having similar rights to people. I'd like to make this proposal: when a corporation dies (goes bankrupt), it should be treated as murder. If the CEO is responsible for killing that corporation, shouldn't he go to jail? That would put an interesting twist on corporate responbilibity.

timdellinger 17y ago
I always wondered if corporate personhood meant that corporations would lose some of their their rights if convicted of a felony. And are corporations eligible for tougher sentencing under "three strikes you're out" legislation? If a corporation kills someone, is the death penalty a possibility? It seems like corporate personhood gives the benefits of being a real person, but without all of the responsibilities or negative consequences.
- wglb 17y ago
  If the corporation is convicted of a felony, it should lose the right to vote, right?
  - whye 17y ago
    Just because a corporation is a person doesn't necessarily mean it's a US citizen. Maybe it should get deported? :)
m_eiman 17y ago
I'd like to see a corporation put in jail, or equivalent. Maybe prevent it from doing any business for the duration of the sentece.
- 8plot 17y ago
  Or put under government control, and profits go to the people for the length of the sentence.
  - m_eiman 17y ago
    That'd be better for the employees and customers, for sure. If it's a big corporation (maybe Microsoft), then it'd cause a fair bit of turbulence if they're deactivated for a few years.
logic 17y ago
The entire concept of "criminal liability" as pertains to corporations has always confused me. You can't effectively sentence a corporation to anything, you can only sanction it by enforcing (typically monetary) reparations, or by dissolving the corporation in extreme circumstances. There's a reason that, when it comes to criminal acts committed on behalf of a company, individuals are the ones that go to jail: THEY committed a crime, whether they did it to help their organization or not. The idea of corporate person-hood a perfect example of a (very) leaky abstraction
njharman 17y ago
This gets to the root of the issue. Corporations have the rights of people but none of the responsibilities and few and weaker penalties for doing wrong. They "buy" politicians and their money and power provide huge voices with which to drown out views they do not like. Can't die, don't go to jail, hard to regulate, suing them just gets rid of some of the employees/executives the corp goes back to doing whatever it can get away with. Bankruptcy is rarely fatal

timdellinger 17y ago

I always wondered if corporate personhood meant that corporations would lose some of their their rights if convicted of a felony. And are corporations eligible for tougher sentencing under "three strikes you're out" legislation? If a corporation kills someone, is the death penalty a possibility? It seems like corporate personhood gives the benefits of being a real person, but without all of the responsibilities or negative consequences.

wglb 17y ago
If the corporation is convicted of a felony, it should lose the right to vote, right?
- whye 17y ago
  Just because a corporation is a person doesn't necessarily mean it's a US citizen. Maybe it should get deported? :)

m_eiman 17y ago

I'd like to see a corporation put in jail, or equivalent. Maybe prevent it from doing any business for the duration of the sentece.

8plot 17y ago
Or put under government control, and profits go to the people for the length of the sentence.
- m_eiman 17y ago
  That'd be better for the employees and customers, for sure. If it's a big corporation (maybe Microsoft), then it'd cause a fair bit of turbulence if they're deactivated for a few years.

logic 17y ago

The entire concept of "criminal liability" as pertains to corporations has always confused me. You can't effectively sentence a corporation to anything, you can only sanction it by enforcing (typically monetary) reparations, or by dissolving the corporation in extreme circumstances. There's a reason that, when it comes to criminal acts committed on behalf of a company, individuals are the ones that go to jail: THEY committed a crime, whether they did it to help their organization or not. The idea of corporate person-hood a perfect example of a (very) leaky abstraction

njharman 17y ago

This gets to the root of the issue. Corporations have the rights of people but none of the responsibilities and few and weaker penalties for doing wrong. They "buy" politicians and their money and power provide huge voices with which to drown out views they do not like. Can't die, don't go to jail, hard to regulate, suing them just gets rid of some of the employees/executives the corp goes back to doing whatever it can get away with. Bankruptcy is rarely fatal