Hi, Swami -

Great article; thanks for bringing it in. :)

About corporations:

- Perkins explains very well that there may be folks, who would very much like to make things better, caught in the daily economics and politics of working inside a corporate hierarchy. Because of that, the way to change things is to cease buying from the corporation, with the message that we'll buy from you again only if you change the 'modus operandi' of your business dealings. Then the folks inside the corporation who truly want to make things better have something they can take to the higher-ups and stockholders, etc., in support of an idea that they all need to change direction "for the sake of the bottom line" and, indeed, for the very life of the corporation.

That said, it's important to realize that corporations don't do anything. People do. And perhaps we need to start focusing on those people, the decision makers, rather than on the corporations they are parts of.

It's said that Monsanto is "the most evil corporation in the world" - but where does that get us? Perhaps the real question is, "Who are the human beings making decisions for Monsanto? What are their names?"

- Perhaps more important: It's said that until legislation was enacted to change it, possibly in the 1960s (?), any corporation was chartered only for a limited time, formed for some one particular purpose; and at the end of the charter period, the corporation returned to being "just a company".

Presently we have 'immortal' corporations with rights, privileges and protections equivalent to or greater than those of living men and women - including freedom of speech in the form of making monetary contributions to political candidates, and in some cases immunity from lawsuits.

That's insane. It's insane for a corporation to be immortal, insane for a corporation to be transnational, insane for any enterprise to function on "Wall Street" character Gordon Gekko's philosophy of "Greed is good." As Perkins points out:

And in fact, the cancer of the corporate empire has metastasized into what I would call a failed global death economy. This is an economy that’s based on destroying the very resources upon which it depends, and upon the military. It’s become totally global, and it’s a failure.

This has to change.

I think the concept of "immortal corporation" has shown itself to be a failed idea for all but those 62 individuals who have garnered so very much wealth - and what are they doing with that wealth? How many yachts does one person need? What is the Clinton Foundation accomplishing? Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation? George Soros?

We should seriously consider repealing whatever legislation has allowed corporations to be immortal.

Blessings.

--hobie

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