A few weeks ago Mitt Romney made a statement that set him up for ridicule and bashing from the left. He stated that corporations are people and effectively should be treated like people. Now, while I don’t agree with Mitt Romney about everything and am actually supporting some of his competitors in the race for the nomination, this statement actually made quite a lot of sense. However, he was vilified for it and has had to explain it away ever since. Why, you may ask?
Well, apparently, corporations are now the enemy of the people and even President Obama played upon it during his press conference yesterday. The whole movement that started on Wall Street last week and seems to now be spreading across America is based upon the “evil” corporations and banking system or something along those line. Frankly, I don’t even think the protesters know what they are protesting about, but that’s a whole different column.
The Evil Entity
My inspiration for this column came yesterday when I had a small argument on Facebook with Shannon Ivey who used to be a regular contributor herein. She made a statement along the lines that she was no longer doing business with Bank of America because their CEO had the nerve to state that the corporation deserves to make a profit. At that time, I pointed out to her that they did deserve a profit and that there were many people like myself that were suffering because of the decline in their stock price. I, and many other hard working Americans, have Bank of America stock in our retirement accounts. And, right not Bank of America seems to be on the verge of bankruptcy. People are being effected. In fact, my IRA is down almost 25% in the past quarter and has never reached its pre-collapse high.
Prior to the collapse of the financial markets in 2008, Bank of America was trading at about $35.00 per share. It is currently teetering at the all important $5.00 per share price. If it dips below that amount, it can no longer be held by institutional investors and/or many pension plans. Based upon these figures it has dropped approximately 85% in about three years. During that time period, it was forced by the Obama Administration to buy the nearly bankrupt Merrill Lynch and had previously bought the nearly bankrupt California based mortgage company Countrywide Savings and Loan.
Both of those companies were going down because of the banking crisis which was caused by bad mortgages. This was start of what I am now calling the Second Great Depression. Bank of America, against its better judgment, agreed to buy these entities in order to keep the economy alive and/or, in the case of Merrill to get TARP money. They were bullied into it by both the Fed and the White House. At the time, they had many troubled assets, but they were also doing well enough to be the savior of these two failing companies.
Bank of America was not the cause of the Second Great Depression. It was caused by the financial crisis which was caused by members of Congress who forced these institutions to make mortgage loans to people who could not and should not have had mortgages. They could not afford to buy homes and banks were forced to lend to them. This can all be blamed on Barney Frank and Chris Dodd who led the charge into the sub-prime market by passing regulations allowing these loans to happen. The evil corporations were directed by people and the people who survive because of these evil corporations are now feeling the effects.
According to Hoovers.com, Bank of America employs about 288,000 human beings worldwide. Those are people. Bank of America stock is held by many IRA’s and large pension funds. Those are directly benefiting people. Accordingly, Mitt Romney is right, corporations are people. They are not evil entities. If they fail because of market forces, people are hurt. The entity ceases to exist, but real, living people are hurt.
Don’t get me wrong, I do not believe in corporate bailouts. I believe in the free market. The United States government should not have bailed out GM or Chrysler or any of the banks. They were failing because of human error. However, our citizens should not get caught up in this left wing idea that corporations are evil. They are not evil. They are people. And, in that sense, once again, Mitt Romney is definitely right.
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Great article.
Legally speaking, corporations are people… that’s what the Supreme Court decided in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. As Justice Thomas clarified that if 10 people got together and decided to speak, just as a group, you’d say they have First Amendment rights to speak and the First Amendment right of association. If the 10 people then formed a partnership to speak, you’d say they still have that First Amendment right to speak and of association. But what if the 10 people then formed a corporation? Well, the Supreme Court decided that in terms of rights and protections in the Constitution that corporations have the same legal rights as people… hence, corporations are people.
That’s one way to look at it. The other way to look at it is the obvious. Individuals — people — that are employed by corporations are hurt when others seek to hurt the corporations. Every business I know, except for maybe the Cleveland Indians baseball organization in the 1989 movie “Major League,” wants to succeed, grow and add jobs that positively impact people and society. When those with Leftist anti-corporation agendas seek boycotts and other methods to hurt corporations, who are they really hurting? Ultimately, it’s going to be the people. The people in those corporations who trade their labor for a paycheck that puts a roof over their head and food in their bellies. They are the ones who are first hurt by an anti-corporation agenda.
Frankly, I am a Romney fan. The man has a record of success in business, in organization and in government. He has a knack for being able to turn around what is broken and make it successful — he has an untarnished record in doing this — and that is exactly what America needs right now.
Honorable people do most definitely disagree.
Shannon has captured our hearts but is so fallible, no judgment on right or wrong, at least on this subject, as we are all humans, and occasionally highlights those issues that confound a system that has for all time, in this noble infant nation, America, so far, represented growth and progress, that being principled capitalism.
A comment, sometime passed, was made that unprincipled capitalist, those banks that caved into Hank Paulson’s insistence on participation in TARP (never turned out to be that which we were sold, i.e. the quarantine of toxic assets, the products of policies laid at the door step of the Federal Government), were very guilty of a misstep. Nobody is too big to fail or too saintly not to have sinned. Where was our outrage then?
Could this not be a purposeful distraction, which we foolishly fall into, by an administration whose policies and regulations have wrecked havoc? If no crisis, create a crisis, for a crisis is too good to waste. And prior administrations are not guiltless…nor are we the electorate.
But no one would disagree, I pray, that everyone and corporations do misstep, the miracle is the pivot back to honesty, integrity, personal, community material and spiritual “growth.” The subliminal point is that this pivot, the Transformation of America, is not turning out for the good.
A return of American exceptionalism isn’t going to happen if socialism is installed. And do not be fooled, socialism gives the George Soros’s of the world the control they lust after. And we are their pawns when we do their bidding. Who wants a diminished dollar???. This is the road to perdition, a serious concern for anyone of spirituality. Are we so foolish?
Most, conveniently forget, that someone important once said “”Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, give unto God what is G-d’s.” The definition of what goes to “whom” is convenient to the argument and exposes the hypocrisy. And the dialogue will rage on as to interpretation.
For those who would boycott Bank of America, the purist is in dire straights, for the cache for their very existence, is funded or flows through that or a similar institution. And for those who would not judge, have you not done just that? And yes, He did chase the money changers out of the temple. Why????? Would He have been there to chase them out if there were no “clients?” Behold, “WE” are the clients!!! We are the problem!
No, my friend, sad as it is to disagree with a friend; the problem is that ““we”, yes “we”, must first and foremost be the change we seek.” From that change often does flow good. Do as I say and not as I do…is nonsense. Are we not the problem looking for a solution, a form of reverse psychology? The “takers” wish to rule the “makers”, a guaranteed wage insures no one will work, and the golden goose is dead!
That is the challenge to those in this arena of “hate capitalism” and “hate corporations”, “hate” as defined by abhorrence, disgust, revulsion, and odium being the difference between the current apparently rather unruly, lacking specificity, unwilling to work, refusing to share their “free food, sleeping bags and beverage” with the homeless, these demonstrations and then compare to a “Tea Party” demonstration.
These gatherings coming from the very people, many of whom would not give a second thought to the damage they might be doing to the livelihoods of their family, loved ones, the industry in which they work and charity towards others, others they do not even know of whom they harm, those who are “working” for a living. This does not affect the “rich”, it destroys everyone underneath. You decide who is rich. Care to share?
A person’s right to civilly, and on occasion civil disobedience, san any harm caused, is an option, boycott any corporation, this right is almost sacrosanct. Please have the courage of your convictions but consider that “wherever” one puts the fruits of their labor, in this case fiat money, 401K, Bonds, retirements, et al and that “wherever” entity stands as a symbol of “hate capitalism”, then the slogan of Marx, Engels, Cloward, Francis Fox Piven and all those who become parasites at the public trough, those who will not take a job or any job because it is below them or the pay is too little, serves the hidden agenda of who or whom?
And what about those who are in the “Group” and disagree? Eventually we will all be judge by “not to speak is to speak”, “not to act is to act” and if it turns out poorly, who do you blame?
While we all are imperfect, the flaws in our culture are mirror images of our personal defects. In the final analysis “we” will make the difference.
Frank – You left out the meat of my argument. We are transferring our money to a credit union because BofA has routinely treated its customers poorly and has assumed that we would just put up with the fact that they continue to tack on fees, monthly charges, ect. We (moveourmoney) are exercising our right to collectively make a mass exodus from BofA in an effort to send a very loud and very clear message: treat us like discards and we will take our business elsewhere.
Would like to clear up only one of the misconceptions. No one would mind the Corporations are people decision, the problems is they get the benefits of being people without the individual, social, and citizen responsibilities.
Let them be people, but also let them follow the very same laws, pay the very same taxes, and be held accountable the very same way as all other people in the US are.
If I throw garbage on the streets, in my neighbors yard, pour oil from my car onto the ground, dump my used tires at the city dump, I am fined. Then they should be fined under the very same environmental laws.
If I commit fraud against another person or business, I would go to jail. So should they.
If I can not meet my financial responsibility, I can not run to our Govt for bailouts, special tax deductions, nor subsidies so neither should they.
If I were to mismanage my money and not pay you then you have the recourse to file a civil suit against me. Then, again, we should have that recourse with banks, lending firms, investment company’s. Include employers who shut down a company, declares bankruptcy, taking not only my a person’s job but many times all benefits earned over many years of hard work, only to miraculously find enough money to rebuild overseas or start over under a new Inc. name/structure. Insurance company’s which guarantees if a person pays premiums then certain things are insured; then turns around and drops the insured.
So if you want Corporations to be People then no problem. But they must be held up to very same responsibility, criminal laws, as well as civil laws as the People are.
Supreme court gave them the Rights of being people but none of the responsibilities which accompany those rights.
Also, maybe you could more truthfully elaborate on just how the Supreme court decided the ruling. The previous ruling they used to justify the Corporations are People: the actual statements they based the ruling on were from the stenographers side notes for use later-NOT anything read into record during that original hearing.
Dann:
I could go on and on about your comment. However, you must understand that the tax code is one big stimulus package. The so called “loopholes” that the press is always talking about are geared to, not only increase corporate profits, but to bring jobs and employment to the states. This is also true for the so called deductions allowable for individuals. In fact, maybe I will write an article about this sometime this week. I think you will find it informative.
I also believe that what you guys are actually protesting against is personal greed. It is not against wall streets or the banks, but against human greed on the whole. Whether it is the greed of the CEO’s or the greed of politicians to stay in power, or any other kind of greed.
Think about it.