[GPSCC-chat] Fw: Amendment Name/Feedback

[Spencer Graves]

       During the Move to Amend presentation Sept. 12, David Cobb, 
Attorney and founder of MTA, said that there are only two countries in 
the world where corporations are people:  The other is Iraq (whose 
modern constitution was written while under occupation by the US military).


       I will here outline my understanding of the evolution of the 
concept of a corporation, based partly on what Cobb said and what my own 
study of political economy.  Cobb said that in the early years after the 
founding of the US, corporations were created for a short period of time 
to raise money and perform a specific task.  I don't know when that 
changed, but economists claim that the invention of the limited 
liability corporation was a major step in facilitating economic growth.  
There probably is something to that claim, but it seems to have been 
overblown.  For the first half-century of US history, 1790-1849, the US 
averaged 1.2% per year growth in average annual income (Gross Domestic 
Product per capita, inflation adjusted).[a]  Since the latter half of 
the 19th century, the US has averaged closer to 2% per year, sometimes 
more, sometimes less.  This included the period of the Robber Barons, 
Teddy Roosevelt's Trust Busting efforts, the disastrous Hoover years, 
and since.  We need corporations, but they need to be secondary to 
natural persons in US law.  Currently, multinationals are de facto above 
the law:  Through massive disinformation campaigns, they have convinced 
roughly half of the US electorate that there is no substantive evidence 
that human activity has had anything to do with climate change, and that 
they should get tax rebates on taxes they don't pay while the US 
taxpayers subsidize wars for their benefit.  This is not true for small, 
bankrupt corporations, wherein the tax liability of the owners of the 
bankrupt corporation can still have substantial personal liability for 
taxes on negative income (according to someone I know how is 
experiencing that).


       Does this answer your question, John?


       Spencer
p.s.  There are procedures in US law for a corporate death penalty:  
It's called bankruptcy.  In theory, that should be easier to obtain than 
a death penalty for a natural person, because the standard of proof in a 
civil case is the weight of the evidence as evaluated by a majority of 
the jury.  That's obviously very different in two respects from the 
standard of proof in a criminal case, which requires (a) a unanimous 
determinate of guilt (b) beyond a reasonable doubt.  Of course, even 
most bankrupt corporations can afford attorneys, which means that police 
and prosecutors are less likely to seek convictions of falsified 
evidence and coerced perjury.


[a] Louis Johnston and Samuel H. Williamson, "What Was the U.S. GDP 
Then?" MeasuringWorth, 2011 
(www.measuringworth.com/datasets/usgdp/result.php).


-- 
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph:  408-655-4567
web:www.structuremonitoring.com