{"id":4360,"date":"2013-06-06T11:30:47","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T15:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=4360"},"modified":"2013-06-06T10:03:10","modified_gmt":"2013-06-06T14:03:10","slug":"why-corporate-participation-in-politics-is-bad-bad-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2013\/06\/06\/why-corporate-participation-in-politics-is-bad-bad-bad\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Corporate Participation in Politics is Bad, Bad, Bad"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve talked before about why corporations are evil<\/a> (or rather, why they tend<\/em> to behave that way). But there’s something else I want to talk about which is related to that – and that’s corporate participation in politics.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let’s back up a bit first though and go over what exactly is<\/em> a corporation?<\/p>\n

A corporation is a sort of legal fiction, an “entity” that exists only on paper, created and sustained only by the laws that allow its existence, and designed to shield people from loss and liability so as to give them a way to do things they wouldn’t be able to (or wouldn’t want to risk doing) otherwise.<\/p>\n

In order for this to work, corporations have to be able to do some of the things ordinary people do – borrow money, have credit, enter contracts, etc.<\/p>\n

But lately, corporations have started to be able to do things that aren’t strictly necessary for corporations to exist – specifically, they can now participate in politics in ways that they weren’t allowed to before.<\/p>\n

Now, corporations can’t vote in elections – thankfully things haven’t gotten that out of hand yet – but it’s getting close, because of the way corporations are now allowed to influence (i.e., give money to) politicians & political campaigns.<\/p>\n

This isn’t, by itself, a bad thing. People band together for political reasons all the time, and they can gather money and contribute to campaigns & such – this is nothing new.<\/p>\n

What’s new is that corporations are allowed to do this, on their own behalf.<\/p>\n

The problem with this is that corporations are inherently immoral.<\/p>\n

Remember – corporations are not<\/em><\/strong> people, even though we sometimes think of them as being like people. They exist to shield people from risk, and to make a profit. Corporations do not<\/strong><\/em> exist to be nice, or act in a moral manner.<\/p>\n

Let me say that again: corporations do NOT<\/strong> exist to be moral, or be nice, or obey laws. While all (or some) of those things may<\/em> be done by some corporations (especially when they are small), they are NOT<\/strong> the purpose of the corporation, and they can all be subverted to greater or lesser degrees in pursuit of the primary purpose, which is PROFIT<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This is true even if the people running the corporation are the nicest people, and the shareholders are all nice, ordinary people themselves – all of this is stripped away by the structure of a corporation, by its very nature.<\/p>\n

Everything a corporation does is measured against a single metric: profit. Even adherence to laws is considered only insomuch as how much that disobedience would cost (literally), or how those individuals in the corporation would be punished directly by disobedience.<\/p>\n

Now, don’t get me wrong here – I’m NOT saying that corporations are themselves a bad idea, or that these attributes of corporations make them terrible. There are problems with them, sure, but they have served us well over the years with various tweaks here and there, and I’m sure they will continue to do so in the future.<\/p>\n

The problem here can be summed up like this:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Corporations are inherently immoral.<\/li>\n
  2. Corporations can now participate directly in politics.<\/li>\n
  3. Because corporations are inherently immoral, their influence in politics will also be immoral.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Politics is a nasty enough business on its own, but now it is going to be much, much<\/em> worse – which is why letting corporations participate in politics (a la the Citizens United decision<\/a>) is such a bad, bad, bad idea.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    This is akin to suddenly having large, sentient, carnivorous dinosaurs appear, and then giving them an almost equal vote in our political processes, and wondering why very soon it’s legal for people to be eaten by dinosaurs at any time, or have their homes stomped on, etc.<\/p>\n

    When corporations can participate in politics and government, the natural evolution will be for corporations to gain more and more influence, behaving like parasites, until eventually they merge with government itself, and you can no longer tell where one ends and the other begins.<\/p>\n

    Corporate participation in politics is, frankly, wrong, and it runs contrary to all the ideas of democracy that underpin so much of our society. If we are to continue to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people – and not a government “for the corporations” – then corporate participation in politics must not be allowed.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’ve talked before about why corporations are evil (or rather, why they tend to behave that way). But there’s something else I want to talk about which is related to that – and that’s corporate participation in politics. Let’s back up a bit first though and go over what exactly is a corporation? A corporation… Continue reading Why Corporate Participation in Politics is Bad, Bad, Bad<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[199,2],"tags":[338,19,100,385,392],"class_list":["post-4360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-opinion","category-politics","tag-corporations","tag-government","tag-opinion","tag-politics","tag-society","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-18k","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4937,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2022\/11\/22\/corporate-welfare\/","url_meta":{"origin":4360,"position":0},"title":"Corporate Welfare","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"When you start to decouple the ideas that money & property are the be-all and end-all of everything, capitalism as it exists these days really starts to seem awfully misguided. But even if you don't do that, and you just believe in the idea that \"hard work bears fruit,\" then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":901,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/06\/20\/why-do-governments-and-corporations-become-evil\/","url_meta":{"origin":4360,"position":1},"title":"Why do Governments and Corporations become Evil?","author":"Keith Survell","date":"June 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The corporate motto of Google, Inc. is \"Don't be Evil.\" While this might seem like playful banter from an amazingly successful company, it actually says something deep and meaningful about human society - namely, that organizations; be they corporations, religious groups, or governments; over time become \"evil.\"","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5287,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2022\/11\/21\/technology-optimism-and-the-future\/","url_meta":{"origin":4360,"position":2},"title":"Technology, Optimism, and the Future","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The idealistic dream of \"technology for good\" gives way to the realization that technology - like anything - is just a tool, and can be used for good or ill.","rel":"","context":"In "My Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":836,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/01\/18\/fedex-and-silly-security\/","url_meta":{"origin":4360,"position":3},"title":"FedEx and Silly Security","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\"I sympathize with people who aren\u2019t making very much and are probably forced to comply with arcane corporate rules and who have to deal with weirdoes coming in with cans labeled \u201cRocket Fuel.\u201d I really do. But\u2026 c\u2019mon.\"","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6205,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2025\/01\/21\/i-do-not-consent\/","url_meta":{"origin":4360,"position":4},"title":"I Do Not Consent","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"It should go without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that I am very, very, very much not happy with the direction my country is going as of late.","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1557,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/12\/17\/can-spam-act-is-5-years-old\/","url_meta":{"origin":4360,"position":5},"title":"CAN-SPAM Act is 5 Years Old","author":"Keith Survell","date":"December 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"So it's been 5 years since the CAN-SPAM act was introduced. Yet my inbox is still flooded with spam (I have to use 2 different spam-filtering services to keep it from being overwhelming - and even then stuff still gets through). An article on Slashdot asks the obvious question: what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}