So we start our OWN corporation and use it to elect who WE want

[Cronus Protagonist]

Who's in?

[fascisthunter]

1. I Prefer Not to Legitimize Corporate Personhood

I think we should fight against this concept, and not play their game on their terms.

[no limit]

2. Sign me up? What service or product are we selling that will make us billions?

[Cronus Protagonist]

5. Alpine Fresh Air

We can import it from France and Italy.

[Kokonoe]

9. High Tech Voting Apparatus

Ohh... wait thats already been done.

[Cronus Protagonist]

19. I like this idea

It would be the best and least biased voting apparatus in the world.

[rucky]

14. You don't have to sell anything to make it on the big board!

Just keep the shareholders happy. That's what makes this country so great.

[no limit]

16. Really? You don't need any product or service to succeed? Wow...like I said, sign me up

[Cronus Protagonist]

20. I Was wondering what Hathaway sells

Isn't it just ownership in other stocks? I'm not up to scratch on these things but I do believe a corporation can just be a corporate holding entity with no product, just assets.

[no limit]

22. How did they obtain those assets? Those assets didn't pop out of thin air

the point here is it's absolutely silly to claim we can all just start a corporation and suddenly we can use that for a liberal agenda. People need to put the bong down before they post.

[Cronus Protagonist]

23. It doesn't matter where the assets come from

And you could use a nice spoonful of lighten-up medicine! :^D

[Atman]

3. Great idea! First, get a brazillion dollars...

...then...uh...okay, gotta get passed the 'first' part first...

.

[havocmom]

4. "we" aren't likely to have enough $$ to compete with multi-national corp. giants

Who's not dealing with reality?

[Wapsie B]

12. How much money did Obama raise from online donations?

In no way would the money raised in such a corporation be close to what an entity like Walmart or Microsoft would have. But I see it as an effective tool rather than the splintering of the Left that's been going on for eons.

[Wapsie B]

6. I'll kick in a 5 spot.

I say we use the law to our advantage. Sounds like the most plausible way to actually get somewhere. I don't like the idea of corporate personhood either. But I don't see an effective way of abolishing it. Better to work within the system as it stands now. Petitions, letter-writing, phone calls, demonstrations only go so far. But cold hard cash rules the day in politics.

[lame54]

7. DU incorporated

[sinkingfeeling]

8. We still wouldn't have the millions of dollars needed to 'buy' a single vote.

[havocmom]

10. Air America couldn't stay afloat

Some here think they can just file some legal papers and compete with Shell Oil.

We might make some coin changing selling new specs to all those looking through rose colored lenses but you are correct, it wouldn't be a drop in the bucket.

[FormerDittoHead]

11. Here's why it wouldn't work.

I guess I should make this it's own message, so people can simply down-vote what I'm saying, but no one seems to get the idea about how damaging this new rule is.

If I were a rich person, I could, as a matter of free speech, use my money and through freedom of speech, lobbyists, and campaign donations, try to influence congress to be favorable to me, my class of rich people or my interests.

All of that would be out of my pocket, after I've paid taxes on it.

If I were a SMART rich person, I'd figure out a way to do all of that but reduce my taxes at the same time.

I know! I'll start something called, "The Heritage Institute" or "The CATO Institute" and my "contributions" to those places which do absolutely nothing but 100% try to influence politics would be TAX DEDUCTIBLE!

BUT IT GETS BETTER!

Think of a rich person who is on the upper/mgmt / board of a major corporation.

It shouldn't be hard, because 99.9% of all publicly owned corporations are controlled by rich people. Their ownership would be more diverse, with pension and mutual funds owning large chucks, 401k's having stock and such, but the CONTROL of the corporations is ENTIRELY by rich people.

So, do you know what would be better than getting a discount on spending my own money toward political gain?

SPENDING SOMEONE *ELSE'S* MONEY FOR POLITICAL GAIN!

And that's why every one of these damn examples of people spending their PERSONAL money via a corporation ISN'T THE POINT.

They can NOW spend OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY in order to finance their political influence!

The CAPPER is how few people have picked up on this.

[garybeck]

13. the problem is that we are not greedy assholes who exploit everything in sight

so we wouldn't have millions to spend on it.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

15. This is getting stupid. n/t

[gmoney]

17. You need some economic pursuit that would benefit from deregulation

Right now, lobbyists spend millions buying senators, but the laws they pass or don't pass allow the industries to make billions, so they get something like a 10,000% return on investment.

The only thing I think might be able to make it happen would be the marijuana trade. If somehow enough funds could be pooled to support candidates who want to legalize pot or other drugs, they would stand to make enough to continue making payments on their politicians. Of course, those contributions would be illegal because they were earned through selling illegal drugs. Nevermind that the other lobbyists also represent criminals who are either currently breaking laws, or WANT to break those laws, or want to be awarded government contracts for reasons other than being the best provider at the best price.

[TheKentuckian]

18. Well, how many billions do we have to spend?

Because, that's the rub of it.

We can already do what the big corporations are being invited to do but we have a rather significant resource imbalance.

[DailyGrind51]

21. I don't think we could come up with the billion$$$ to counter the Fortune 500!