A question on corporate personhood

[mindwalker_i]

In the wake of Scalia's statement on corporations being people, there have been a lot of questions as to whether a corporation should die after a maximum 100 years (the almost top of life expectancy), or whether they can be sent to Gitmo, etc.

My problem with corporations is that they make bad citizens. This has been pointed out in different fashions, but the argument is basically the same: corporations exist to make profits. They don't care about people or the world except inasmuch as it affects those profits. Corporations will use any political power to get laws passed that help their bottom line irregardless of the effects that those laws have on the people affected. This is as it should be. It's up to the people to regulate corporations such that they don't do great damage in their quest for profits.

However, given Scalia's position, can we give corporations a conscience? According to William Kristol in the New York Times (not exactly a source of liberal thinking), 18000 people die each year due to the policies of health insurance companies, be that rescission, denial of coverage for procedures, or refusal to cover certain people at all. This is one person every half hour. In at least some of these cases, specifically refusal to cover things that should have been covered that resulted in death, this amounts to murder. If corporations are people, they should be put on trial - the ENTIRE corporation - and sentenced. That would include the execs, the workers, and the shareholders - the whole bloody thing. If a plot is discovered to deny coverage - bonuses for rescission - this is pre-meditated murder.

An individual person (ideally) will face the consequences for his or her actions. A corporate person should also face the consequences for their actions.



The Chair! The Chair!
(make that chairs)

[burrowowl]

1. Soto surprised me and

asked some good questions.
When I was in France I remember some Italian execs going to PRISON for dioxine contamination.
Health Insurance execs should go to PRISON for killing people.

[mindwalker_i]

2. "Health Insurance execs should go to PRISON for killing people."

Yup!