Way back in the dark days of the 2012 presidential election, Former Governor Mitt Romney was addressing a testy group of Iowa farmers at the state fair. Being in the heartland, Romney was doing his "no new taxes" tap-dance when a concerned fairgoer rudely suggested that taxes should be raised for some; like the super-rich. Romney, always ready to defend the aristocracy from the rabble, demurred. He suggested that taxes could be raised "on people" but before he could explain what people, someone yelled "corporations". The heckler had apparently read that day's Wall Street Journal and discovered that America's companies were mostly recovered from the 2008 crash and were doing rather nicely. In a rare departure from his prepared text, Romney opined that "corporations are people too, my friend."
That's a stunning statement. He might have said "Corporations have some of the same rights as people." He could have said "Supreme Court decisions all the way from 1818 (Dartmouth College v. Woodward) to 2010 (Citizen's United v. Federal Elections Commission) have, from time to time, granted corporations and other groups some citizen rights where speech, property ownership and federal regulations are concerned."
He might even have explained that Hugo Black and William O. Douglas wrote that corporations maintain the same human rights as do the individuals who make up the corporate entity. He didn't. Well, it was Iowa and it's hot in August.
Talk of corporations as people raises an interesting question: in the wake of several tragic occurrences over the last few years, why are corporations...as people... never (and I mean never) held accountable for their crimes? Seriously, if the police find a murder victim in a river, they investigate. They learn the who, what, when where and why. They collect facts and, very often, they apprehend the perpetrator. The district attorneys then try, convict and incarcerate the culprit. I know that is true because I've seen every episode of Law and Order...twice. However, if all the criminals that Lenny Briscoe uncovered were companies, Law and Order would have been a half-hour show. Jack McCoy would have been out of a job. Companies never pay for anything. To wit:
Consider those beach friendly, Gulf lovin' shrimp protectin' Brits at British Petroleum. Back in 2010, BP was happily pumping oil from the Gulf of Mexico using a rig called Deepwater Horizon. On April 20 the rig exploded. Eleven actual people were killed. For 87 days the world watched as crews who had never tried to cap a deep well before, tried to cap a deep well. Throughout the entire tragedy BP: minimized the spill (estimated at 210 million gal.), shifted blame to every one short of the gas station owners in Gulfport and in general, behaved like the weasels they were. The damage was in the billions. The cost to sea life and other wildlife was incalculable. In April this year, BP announced that the clean-up was done and went home. The US Coast Guard said BULLSHIT (Well, they would have if they were allowed to.)
So, with all this loss of life and property, how many "people" from BP and their contractor companies went to jail? How many were tried? How many indicted? Say it with me...Not a Goddamn One. Zip! Zero! Eleven dead and no one pays.
OK how about Wharton, WV in 2012. Two coal miners died when the Brody #1 mine, operated by the Patriot Coal Co. experienced a "severe coal burst". Subsequent investigations revealed that the Brody mine had a long and very dangerous history of safely violations. It was one of three mines in the country that was considered so dangerous it was designated a pattern violator. "Regardless of the safety concerns we do not have the authority to shut a mine down" said the head of the West Virginia Office of Mine Health Safety and Training. Patriot Coal continued to profit from the Brody pit until two men died. They knew it was a catastrophe waiting to happen. They did nothing. So is the greedy CEO of Patriot, Irl F. Englehardt in the clink? Are the do-nothing executives who sent miners into a deathtrap serving a little time? Say it with me, Noooo.
This could go on for some time. There's the Duke Energy ash dump into the Dan River in North Carolina which contaminated the drinking water of thousands. And, of course, there is the incredible malfeasance of the biggest banks and financial institutions culminating in the Great Recession of 2008. We all know how many "people" went to jail in that one. (Hint: The next indictment will be the first.)
But I close with our favorite automobile company, General Motors. This sorry story goes back to 2001 when GM engineers discovered that faulty ignition switches were prone to ignition...of the entire vehicle. The "powers that be" at GM decided on the best course of action...shut up. As a result of this exercise in corporate omerta, thirteen "people" died. True, GM was on the ropes for much of the Bush years; mostly because twenty years of substandard auto production had begun to take a toll. When Barack Obama bailed them out, the last thing they needed was a recall. (Hey, who would participate in "Cash for Clunkers" if you were just getting another clunker?) I'm sure the chairman at the time, Rick Wagoner was able to sleep nights knowing that he was protecting the jobs of 220,000 people in 400 facilities on six continents. After all, he was at war with Japan and well, people die in wars. Right?
I won't bother to ask you if Mr. Wagoner is currently a guest at Muskegon Correctional Facility. He isn't and he's not likely to be. Go figure.
So what have we learned from our little saunter down memory lane, boys and girls? We have learned that corporations are people as long as it involves lobbying, campaign contributions and other forms of free speech. When it comes to the sorts of personal responsibilities that all actual people must acknowledge, such as doing the time having done the crime, companies are somehow excused. Corporations can kill you with impunity and apparently immunity. No one is ever at fault.
The courts have ruled that a collection of people with a common interest has the rights afforded to the members as individuals. OK but why don't the sins of the group fall back on the individuals who make up the the collective? When does the corporate decision-making process become a criminal conspiracy with blame attached to all conspirators? First-hand knowledge or active participation is no defense for the driver of the get-away car in a holdup. If you are engaged in an illegal act or conspire with those who are, you are guilty. Believe me, the first time that the FBI raids a corporate board room and shuffles the board members into waiting paddy wagons much of the corporate sanctioned homicide will stop. Honestly, who wouldn't love to see Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman of Goldman Sachs, marched out onto Wall St. with a raincoat over his head and his greedy hands cuffed behind him?
We demand justice but we're not barbarians (except maybe Texas). How about if the entire board of directors of BP is forced to work on an oil rig for a year? GM executives must only drive their company's most unsafe car...which is apparently all of them. Coal mine owners who hold other lives so cheaply should be made to pick up a pick. Mitt, if corporations are people, how is it they hate healthcare? Real people don't. Why do they balk at minimum wage increases? Real people need a decent wage. Why are they sending jobs to China when real people want the jobs in the U.S.? They're not people Mitt, they're cyborgs. Having seen you run for President I can see how you might get confused.
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