{"id":2014,"date":"2009-09-23T15:01:07","date_gmt":"2009-09-23T13:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/?p=2014"},"modified":"2009-09-23T15:03:06","modified_gmt":"2009-09-23T13:03:06","slug":"try-the-company-capitalism-a-love-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/try-the-company-capitalism-a-love-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Try the company (Capitalism: A love story). Or, “If companies are people…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I saw the advert for Michael Moore’s<\/a> new film today (Capitalism: A love story<\/a>), and decided to write him a letter. It follows. Any thoughts from my readers are welcome in the comments, as well as via email.<\/p>\n

Hi Mike:<\/p>\n

Long time fan, first time writer.<\/p>\n

As my wife and I were sitting and watching the latest from the Supreme Court’s non-activist judges the other day, we were enraged, again, by the idea that “corporations are people, too” – a historical mistake with dire consequences. But then Nicole – the smarter of us -\u00c2\u00a0 wondered aloud, “If they are people, why has the state never tried them for murder?” Sure, companies whose irresponsible actions have ended people’s lives have been sued by individuals for monetary compensation, and there have even been occasional consequences for individuals within various companies on such occasions. But if corporations are people under law, and commit these crimes as a corporation (aka person), should not the corporation be subject to the same rulings as people are? What would it mean for a corporation – as a thing; or rather, a person – to serve 10 years in jail? A life sentence? To get the death penalty? Why can’t we incarcerate one? Has it ever been tried (forgive the pun)? I’d love to see it. I’ve love to help it happen.<\/p>\n

How might I, or we, try such a thing?<\/p>\n

Keep up the good work! Warmly,<\/p>\n

Nathaniel Stern
\nhttp:\/\/nathanielstern.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw the advert for Michael Moore’s new film today (Capitalism: A love story), and decided to write him a letter. It follows. Any thoughts from my readers are welcome in the comments, as well as via email. Hi Mike: Long time fan, first time writer. As my wife and I were sitting and watching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-politics","category-uncategorical"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9blZT-wu","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1125,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/03\/23\/the-new-american-myth\/","url_meta":{"origin":2014,"position":0},"title":"The New American Myth","author":"nathaniel","date":"23 March 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the greatest Myths propagated by the contemporary American neo-conservative powers that be is the idea that Democracy and Capitalism are one and the same, that the former cannot exist without the latter, and, most dangerously, that big company-led Capitalism Uber Alles actually leads to, promotes and protects what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":151,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2003\/08\/19\/holiday-not-the-madonna-song\/","url_meta":{"origin":2014,"position":1},"title":"holiday (not the madonna song)","author":"nathaniel","date":"19 August 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"You ever get into one of those stages in life, where you feel as if you've \"never been this busy, and never been this bored?\" I sometimes feel this way when I have heaps of freelance work to catch up on (like, now - gotta pay the bills, right?). I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "uncategorical"","block_context":{"text":"uncategorical","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/old-categories\/uncategorical\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2108,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/11\/rsa-animate-crises-of-capitalism\/","url_meta":{"origin":2014,"position":2},"title":"RSA Animate – Crises of Capitalism","author":"nathaniel","date":"11 July 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Nearly a week after BoingBoing posted it, but this is great! [youtube:http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0]","rel":"","context":"In "inbox"","block_context":{"text":"inbox","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/old-categories\/inbox\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/qOP2V_np2c0\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2208,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/02\/mary-corrigall-on-art-and-capitalism\/","url_meta":{"origin":2014,"position":3},"title":"Mary Corrigall on Art and Capitalism","author":"nathaniel","date":"02 August 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Just tweeted this, but the whole last two paragraphs are too good not to post. Granted, Corrigall is speaking mostly of the South African art scene, but it applies everywhere, I believe. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The growth of the commercial sector of the art market since the advent of democracy has seen a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2003\/05\/19\/your-sigh-ness\/","url_meta":{"origin":2014,"position":4},"title":"your sigh-ness","author":"nathaniel","date":"19 May 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Now this is much cooler than the \"democracy that confused capitalism with a way to govern a country\" United States and their researchers of marketing - and it's right in my backyard! Did I mention that in addition to us being far less safe without Saddam (see article posted from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2003\/05\/14\/weapons-of-mass-deception\/","url_meta":{"origin":2014,"position":5},"title":"weapons of mass deception","author":"nathaniel","date":"14 May 2003","format":false,"excerpt":" And what about those Weapons of Mass Destruction (of Mass Consumption, if you believed that b@llsh!t)? Well, gee willickers, at least we are down one less \"threat,\" and the only price is the ROW (Rest Of the World - saving Blair) being justified in calling us self-absorbed money-hoards after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2014"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2018,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions\/2018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}