On Corporate Welfare

Some time in the late 19th. Century the Supreme Court held that a corporation had the standing of a person before the court. Recent analyses have shown that if American corporations were persons they were sociopaths.

The only reason a corporation exists is to make money. They employ such people as they need to produce the products they sell, they buy and use equipment as needed, and the two are equally dehumanized in the eyes of the corporation's management.

Martin Buber called this the "I-it" relationship as opposed to the "I-thou" relationship between people which respects mutual humanity. Humans who engage in "I-it" relationships with other people are often locked up for criminal behavior. Yet corporations get away with the same behavior, and are rewarded for doing so.

The time has come to end the government's subsidy of anti-social corporate behavior. American companies do not need our tax dollars to help them advertise overseas; American corporations do not need our tax dollars to promote their products in America. For example: Archer-Daniel-Midlands does not need subsidies for ethanol to be added to our gasoline. If it is saves drivers money on their gasoline bill, then the market will support it. If it does not, then why do we need to have this chemical added?

American corporations also should not be given tax breaks as a reward for throwing their American employees out of work and moving the jobs overseas. These practices should be ended immediately.

Finally, the Internal Revenue Service should be empowered to track down and prosecute those who hide their income in dummy off-shore companies, and corporations who set up such dummies should be ineligible to bid on federal contracts.