SOAPBOX: Corporations Are Not People
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A business is more than just a money machine. At least that is true for Small Dog Electronics. While Small Dog Electronics was formed by Hapy and myself to provide jobs for ourselves, we have been motivated by much more than that to build Small Dog Electronics for the last 20 years.
If you break down the word “incorporate,” which is what you do when you start a business, the literal meaning from Latin is “to create a body.” A business is a body within our society—a member of our community. It is a body that has much more impact than a single individual because it builds buildings, it moves products, it provides livelihood to others, it creates waste and it has a much larger footprint on people and planet than any one person. With that great impact comes greater responsibility, something we take very seriously at Small Dog Electronics. We truly measure our success by the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.
However, the one thing that body is NOT is a person. It is an artificial body in society and as such, does not warrant the same rights as citizens. The Supreme Court decision that opened the floodgate for corporate campaign contributions by removing the limitations on the amount of money a company can contribute was a huge mistake both from a logical and political standpoint. Everyone knows that corporations are not individuals, that they do not breathe, vote, have families or have many of the characteristics of people, so they should not enjoy the same rights as people—especially as it relates to our political system.
The impact of campaign contributions is really being felt in this first election with unlimited money flowing into the process. The debate of ideas is moving further and further into something of the past in favor of negative advertising, tearing down the other guy, sound bites and ‘gotchas.’ I look at the perversion of our democracy by the enormous amount of money coming into the electoral process from very wealthy individuals, corporations, unions and others and see a very large red flag. If we are not motivated by the candidate with the best ideas, but rather by the candidate who has the richest friends, then I fear that our elected leaders will drift further from the people, and the deadlocked, do-nothing Congress will be the rule for generations to come.
Corporations are not people and we should pass a constitutional amendment to that effect and separate these large political contributions from the very important job of electing leaders for our country.
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