Homework Oct. 10

Pick three points or lines of argument from "Abolish Corporate Personhood" that you find particularly insightful or instructive. Before class on Monday copy those into a post on the blog -- http://sps121.blogspot.com/2011/09/intro.html. Be ready to discuss what you find insightful in the points you post.

Statements for comment

Here below two quotes. Please read them and respond on the blog by 3:30 pm on Monday, September 19. What do the two statements below mean to you? Is there anything unclear about them? How do they make you feel?

Statement 1.

The first thing to understand is the difference between the natural person and the fictitious person called a corporation. They differ in the purpose for which they are created, in the strength which they possess, and in the restraints under which they act.

Man is the handiwork of God and was placed upon earth to carry out a Divine purpose; the corporation is the handiwork of man and created to carry out a money-making policy.

There is comparatively little difference in the strength of men; a corporation may be one hundred, one thousand, or even one million times stronger than the average man. Man acts under the restraints of conscience, and is influenced also by a belief in a future life. A corporation has no soul and cares nothing about the hereafter. '

A corporation has no rights except those given it by law. It can exercise no power except that conferred upon it by the people through legislation, and the people should be as free to withhold as to give, public interest and not private advantage being the end in view.
-- William Jennings Bryan
address to the Ohio 1912 Constitutional Convention

Statement 2.

Under our current agreements, the new corporate person is instantly endowed with many of the rights and protections of personhood. It's neither male nor female, doesn't breathe or eat, can't be enslaved, can't give birth, can live forever, doesn't fear prison, and can't be executed if found guilty of misdoings. It can cut off parts of itself and turn them into new 'persons,' and can change its identity in a day, and can have simultaneous residence in many different nations. It is not a human but a creation of humans. Nonetheless, the new corporation gets many of the Constitutional protections America's founders gave humans in the Bill of Rights to protect them against governments or other potential oppressors:

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Intro

This is to make sure everyone gets on the blog.
Please post your name and SHU email.
Thanks