persons?

["John H.St.John" <homer@abac.com>]

The root cause of the absurdity of a corporation having constitutional
rights arose from the 1868 Supreme Court Decisions: Santa Clara Vs Southern
Pacific, and San Bernardino Vs Southern Pacific that decided that
corporations were "legal persons" and entitled to protection under the IV
Ammendment. This is the same Supreme Court that decided Dred Scott, a
runaway slave, was not a person. 

Corporations are not persons and the proceeding corporate law that allows
them to hold patents is obviously invalid. Corporations don't invent
anything. Humans invent things.
The obvious subterfuge of tearing up small pieces of ownership and selling
them on the open market is what distinguishes a corporation from anything
else. This was done to eliminate liability totally from the investor. Under
common law: liability and ownership are the same thing. If you own a
pit-bull and he bites a neighbor -- you are liable. 

The corporation pit-bull is on its own because nobody owns it. The putative
owners are gamblers on the stock-exchange and shuffle their portfolios on a
daily basis. Corporations are immortal. Bill Gates will someday die, but
Microsoft will go on ad-infinitum. When Bill Gates formed Microsoft he
ceased being an inventor and took on the task of CEO or "cracker" of the
whip. There is creative accounting, but accountants are not noted for being
creators. 

The only answer to the whole problem of corporations is to return ownership
to the organization. This will change a robot into a responsible entity. The
best way to do this is to replace stock with bonds, and make the corporation
into a cooperative with one vote per employee. The tools of production are
too important for them to be in the inhuman hands of governments: socialisr
governments or corporation governments . . . another heirarchy. End the sale
of common stock!

John H. St.John  http://users.abac.com/homer