cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/65680179
Seriously. Not dystopian science fiction or a new novel by an AI version of George Orwell. Actual corporations — what America’s first Supreme Court Justice, John Marshall, in 1819 called “an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law” — are today voting in elections for everything from the mayor and town council to referendums on corporate taxes and limits on corporate behavior.
What could possibly go wrong?
There are, after all, more corporations than people in Delaware. They can now decide who’s going to run the government, what the laws are, and — through their votes to elect humans who’ll take corporate money to do what corporations want (something else that corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court legalized) — even what regulations companies must follow and what limits there are on their behavior.
I like Thom Hartmann, but there’s a difference between a court for one tiny town saying corporations can vote in municipal elections in that one town and “ZOMG! Corporations can vote in Delaware!”
Some significant problems:
You have to be 18 to vote, if “corporations are people”, wouldn’t that eliminate any corporation founded in the last 17 years?
How would “a corporation” register to vote in the first place?
How would “a corporation” cast a vote?
If it falls to the CEO to register and vote for the company, how is that not double voting?
If the CEO is not a resident of that town, how is that a legal vote?
Too many flaws in this story that Hartmann fails to address…