So what, precisely, is a PERSON?

[Mythsaje]

A person is born of woman, a combination of the genetic traits of both parents. A person may be male or female, of any nationality, healthy or disabled, born into any family background. A person starts unable to focus its eyes, unable to even hold its own head up. It must sit up before it can crawl, crawl before it can walk, and walk before it can run. Or it may not be able to do many of these things, if it is born with some physical infirmity that makes it impossible. It breaths, and eats, and eliminates waste.

A person learns, adapts, and grows, observing the things around it and learning from these observations at an astounding rate. It learns to speak, its first words often being "mama" or "dada."

It celebrates birthdays and grows older in the eyes of the law. It goes to school, and learns how to read, to write, to work mathematics. It learns the history of its culture, and makes friends, and slowly evolves as a human being as it grows.

It grows to adulthood, falls in love, and loses love. It makes mistakes and pays for those mistakes. It learns the value of work, and the value of money. (hopefully).

It marries, if it's allowed to marry the person it loves that much, and may have a child of its own.

A person is born with the right to speak its mind, to follow the spiritual path dictated by its conscience, to defend itself against aggression. A person is mortal, and, as it grows older, grasps the meaning of this mortality. Someday it will fade from the earth, leaving only the memories of its life for others to cling to.

A corporation is formed for the sole purpose of making money. It does not breathe, though it may consume and produce waste. It does not have a beating heart of its own, and cannot grasp its own mortality or morality. It does not LIVE. It is an artificial construct that does not exist independently of its collective parts. It cannot feel pain, or guilt, though its individual members may feel these things. It cannot die, or be physically harmed. It cannot suffer for its mistakes and it cannot love.

It is NOT a person. It should not have the rights of a person. It is not born, does not learn to speak, does not crawl, walk, or run. It cannot grasp its own mortality because it is not mortal. It does not exist to propagate itself, it exists to maintain its own existence.

Not a person.

Not even close.

Respect REAL people.

END CORPORATE PERSONHOOD

[frebrd]

1. K&R n/m

[originalpckelly]

2. Aren't corporations groups of human beings?

[TK421]

3. No, those are commonly referred to as the Borg n/t

[Az]

5. Corporations are comprised of humans but they are compelled to act against their interest

The rules by which a Corporations operates demand that the people that operate within it function as cogs in the machine. Those that will not serve the Corporations best interest will simply be let go. Failure to compete as strongly as possible will be met with consumption by other Corporations or disinvestment of stocks leaving the Corporation to flounder and die. Thus it is in the interest of a corporation to have individuals in charge who are comfortable operating within a sociopathic mindset. Social considerations cannot override profit considerations.

So it doesn't matter if a good and decent person is leading a Corporation or not. They have to abide by the economic and business rules in play. And that can often place human interests in jeopardy.

[Az]

4. People have multiple drives

Corporations have only one.

People have a need to be connected to other people. We are by nature empathetic, altruistic, and compassionate. Corporations by nature are greedy, self centered, and focused on a single self serving issue.

Corporations are asocial and yet we let them have more power in our society than any single person. In fact with the GOP leading the way we have rendered them far less regulated than people and inversely slapped more regulations on individuals.

This is no long the nation of We The People. It is It The Incorporated.

[tbyg52]

6. It's the corporations, stupid!

I keep throwing that out in hopes someone will take it up... ;)

[OneBlueSky]

7. here's a website for those interested in ending corporate personhood . . .

RestoreDemocracy.org
Reclaiming Citizen Authority Over Corporations
http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/

[Richard Steele]

8. K&R

[AmBlue]

9. ...Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Can a corporation have any awareness of these? Read this passage from the Declaration of Independence below holding only the thought of a human person in your mind as the beneficiary of these rights. Then read it again try to think of it-- and especially the bolded text-- as if it were intended to be for corporations. The latter is an obscene distortion and perversion of the intent this seminal document. These rights were NEVER intended to apply to corporations.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

As one of our most eloquent candidates for the Presidency has said, you can NEVER even sit down to the table with them (the corporations) because they will eat all the food. To confer "personhood" on corporations is a fatal mistake that must be corrected.

Good post, mythsaje.

[annabanana]

10. Here Here!!

Well said and very true.