Archive for the ‘Corporate personhood’ tag
While Americans count pennies, Exxon pays zero income taxes
ExxonMobil Facility In Baton Rouge. Image via Wikipedia
[Updated below]
“Only the little people pay taxes” -Leona Helmsley
In my last post, I wrote about the newest scam to screw hardworking people. It involves several Fortune 500 firms that have hired a company called Talx to wrestle workers’ unemployment benefits away from them.
This is how corporations “handle” the messy human contact aspects of running a business. They hire a third party to come in and do the dirty work of dealing with unsanitary stuff: emotions, workers’ livelihoods, mental breakdowns, etc.
For example, Wal-Mart hired Talx to steal the unemployment benefits of Gerald Grenier, a mentally handicapped night janitor because he allegedly stole some coins from a vending machine (Grenier says he forgot to turn in the change).
Corporations also import other jackals to “restructure” and “downsize” their beloved cogs to avoid any unnecessary unpleasantness like a workplace shooting. Everything — anything — can and should be outsourced, downsized, and restructured if it eventually results in expanding profits.
But it appears the corporation’s loyalty extends only to its own bottom line. According to the GAO, the vast majority (66%) of 1.3 million corporations, pay no federal income taxes. A quarter of the 1000 largest U.S. corporations (those with over $250 million in assets or $50 million in sales) fail to pay any taxes.
At a time when Americans are suffering the most, many corporations refuse to give back to the country.
DNC Memo: The time has come to ditch poor people
(Image from Wikipedia)
To: Members of the Democratic Party*
From: DNC Communications
Date: 1/22/10
RE: A New 50 State Strategy: Ditch the poor, social programs, the unions, and consumer protections
When the Supreme Court decided Thursday to allow unlimited political campaign spending by corporations, the highest court in the land not only forever changed the way politics works in America, but they also sent a clear message to Democrats: the time has come to ditch poor people.
Now, “hear” me out, Russ Feingold. Dennis Kucinich, I hope you’ll keep reading this memo after you’ve stopped screaming. For decades, the Democratic Party has been the party of the poor, minorities, and labor unions i.e. the losing side of history. I don’t know if any of you have seriously scrutinized your base lately, but those people don’t have any money.
Sure, you’ll get the occasional donation from a blue-collar worker here, perhaps an ActBlue donation there, but let’s be honest — these paltry pennies pale in comparison to a single donation from Goldman Sachs.
Sotomayor's important statement about corporations
Image from upi.com
Last week, Justice Sonia Sotomayor made a “provocative comment” that probed the foundations of corporate law. The case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, involves whether federal campaign finance laws apply to a critical film about Hillary Clinton intended to be shown in theaters and on-demand to cable subscribers.
The court’s majority conservatives agreed that corporations have broad First Amendment rights and that “recent precedents upholding limits on corporate political spending should be overruled.” However, Sotomayor disagreed, and said the court should reconsider the 19th century rulings that first afforded corporations the same rights as real, live people.
Judges “created corporations as persons, gave birth to corporations as persons,” she said. “There could be an argument made that that was the court’s error to start with…[imbuing] a creature of state law with human characteristics.”
Corporations have been claiming personhood in order to protect their profits from undue strain under regulations or fair taxation ever since Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company in 1886, a United States Supreme Court case dealing with taxation of railroad properties.
