Persons and non-persons
The U.S. Supreme Court is a court of, by and for corporations.
By
John Nichols
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Both shareholders in a corporation and union members in public employment are groups of human beings. They differ in their respective contribution of factors of production–capital in the case of shareholders and labor in the case of public employees. They also differ in that shareholders freely bought into the corporation but public employees have been forced to buy into the union.
Therefore to give dissenting union members their dues, they should at least be able to opt-out of having their dues spent on some union agenda agitating for less freedom and responsibility. Indeed, by pushing the envelope even further, they would voluntarily opt-in to the union agenda only if they so choose. Op-in empowers the worker, not the union.
-Ernest Martinson | Hayward Wisconsin | June 29, 2012
Ernest: Corporation supporters continue to forget several truths. First, corporations are not built without the rest of society...including all taxpayers who assist in the infrastructures that surround the corporations or are used as part of their industries. Second, corporations pretend to speak not just for their shareholders, CEO's, etc., but for their entire "corporation," who at the time of purchase, may or may not, have been given the opportunity to paricipate in some corporate guru's political support decision. Third, the gamemanship of the corporation is clearly to beat down any attempt toward advantage or fairness by workers if it will cost them a cent... .Morality? Unknown by corporates in the game. Fourth, Oh my god, "workers?" Do they dare NOT support the guru's political decision publicly??? I think not, Ernest, if that employee wants to keep his job...or place in line. Completely worker-owned companies would be an answer.
Get real. Or...just keep sipping Rove-spew.
-mhj | madison, wi | July 2, 2012
Apparently, mhj, you assume I am a corporate supporter. Let me persuade you that I am not a supporter of the corporate state that supports corporations. For example, I am an advocate of eliminating the Federal Reserve which heavily supports big corporations, especially, but not limited, to the parasitical financial corporations. And I am not just referring to the latest bailouts of financial institutions too big to fail. The Fed, since its inception in 1913 at the behest of financial moguls, has been quietly feeding corporate interests that have metastasized throughout the body politic.
You say I am not real, but do you really know the history of the Fed---I mean the real history? It is both complicated and simple. Complicated, because any time government intervenes, it does so with much legality, necessitated in part, to cover up what is really happening. Other times, it simply classifies what is done in the name of a stalking horse called National Security.
I agree that the worker-owned corporation is one answer. This begs the question: where does the worker obtain the capital to buy into this corporation? I would suggest looking at the third classic factor of production, namely, land. Nobody made land, so an argument can be made that the earth, as part of the commons, belongs to all. If so, then each of us is entitled to a dividend based on our share of the commons, or natural capital.
-Ernest Martinson | Hayward WI | July 3, 2012
