The Rise of Corporations

Back in 2002, of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 were corporations! Only 49 were countries. That's a staggering statistic and it's over a decade ago! Imagine what it would be now!

How did corporations get this much power? I didn't know this, but a Supreme Court ruling in 1886 relying on the 14th amendment actually said that a corporation is a "Natural Person" with rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. From that point, corporations have been using that guarantee to politics and make sure they had freedom to grow their profits. (Actually, that's not true. But a court reporter published it that way.)

Are corporation inherently bad things for our society? No, but, we must recognize their goals are often in conflict with ours. For example, consider how corporate ownership of the media has limited the average citizen from having complete knowledge of the world around us. They carefully select what information we are being fed. Very few of us look more broadly for information. Many just swallow and regurgitate that the media tells them on an issue.

In addition to corporate control of our media, consider how they use media to enhance consumerism. They create the products, then, create in us the desire to acquire them.

Corporations have unequal rights. Why do they have rights that small, unincorporated businesses don't? Or Unions? According to the above referenced link, Thom Hartmann in an article,  "DINOSAUR WAR", in The Ecologist, December/January 2002, explained that the 1886 Supreme Court ruling never happened! It was a fiction created by a court reporter! Hartmann goes on to explain that the Chief Justice at the time sent a note to the court reporter stating that the court had in fact ruled the opposite regarding corporate person hood! Regardless, no one can refute that the power and influence of corporations has risen to incredible levels in our modern economy.

Then, on January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court of the United States actually did rule in the Citizens United case that corporations have same free speech rights as individuals.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC


As citizens, it is our duty and obligation to be aware of corporate influences and demand that our elected representatives at EVERY level of government pass law to regulate and check their insatiable quest for more and more profit at the expense of everything we hold dear.