Corporations should not be considered “people”

Corporate influence is poisoning society both figuratively and literally, and due to their “personhood,” drastic measures must be taken to stop them.

The idea that corporations are people began with the Supreme Court case of Louisville, Cincinnati, and Charleston Railroad v. Letson in 1844.

Since then, corporate personhood has expanded, and in turn, distorted the idea of what a “person” is.

Corporations may claim personhood, but they do not act in the interests of those people. Through their ability to lobby in Congress and donate unlimited amounts of money to political campaigns, corporations have rigged the game to favor them and not real people.

For example, in 2014 Hobby Lobby was allowed to claim religious freedom as cause to deny its employees health coverage of contraception.

This is a perfect example of how corporations are not people. A “person” in the literal sense has a use for contraception. A corporation does not. A corporation has no incentive to provide contraceptive healthcare because a corporation does not need contraceptive healthcare.

The occurrence of corporations acting outside of the general populaces interests are frequent.

For example, cigarette companies are able to donate money to candidates who will make lax regulations for them. This does not impact the corporation, as it cannot contract lung cancer, have heart issues or any of the other negative side-effects from cigarettes.

Corporations do not have a life-span, and as such, do not have to be concerned about the health of the general public. So while cigarettes continue to harm the health of the general public, both through direct and second-hand smoke, corporations could care less.

A similar example would be corporate opposition to the Clean Air Act. The Clean Air Act was created with the core principles of removing smog and acid rain from the atmosphere.

As any person does, I enjoy being able to breathe clean air that will not kill me. Corporations, on the other hand, are able to make more money if what they release into the air is less regulated, so they do not care about the quality of the air I breathe.

It is one thing to oppose healthcare, but corporations are actively pushing to be allowed to release poison into the air. There are literally puppet Congresspeople who are anti-clean air.

Because of corporations’ abuse of their personhood, there is momentum gaining in liberal circles to craft a constitutional amendment that strips corporations of their personhood. Though it is unlikely to come about any time soon, I strongly support the idea.

Corporations are not people. They cannot breathe, love or die. As such, they have no incentive to make sure that we can safely breath and love.

Corporate influence is poisoning society, both figuratively, by corrupting politicians, and literally, by releasing harmful emissions into our air.

We need to unite as true people and remove the notion that a corporation is the same as you and I.