Corporations as Persons

I keep thinking about our corrupted Supreme Court’s decision that corporations are now persons.  That decision was designed by the Supremes to allow corporations to donate unlimited cash to the republican fat cat candidates. Never mind that it remains an absurdity on its face. Justice Scalia cares not about such things as logic and sense. He cares only about electing republicans, as when he appointed a republican, George W. to the presidency.

But I keep wondering how we, the non-fat cats of the world, could use his inane decision to benefit non-fat cats. Then it came to me. If banks that commit patent fraud against the people, or their shareholders, or people buying investments designed by the bank to defraud, why can’t we bring such corporate-persons to justice? You know, convene a Grand Jury to indict, say Citigroup for its fraudulent one billion dollar investment deal that screwed a whole bunch of ordinary people. Yeah, I know, they have been fined $280 million for their dishonesty. But that means they’re still left with over $700 million in dollars that represent a fraud. Or how about the banks and other corporate entities that, by screwing with their retirement funds, have managed to rip off their retirees and future retirees, by taking money out of the retirement funds to pay very healthy payouts to their execs, while simultaneously claiming that their pension funds cannot pay out necessary retirement packages for ordinary folks? Their actions there may also be fraud.

Now, as I best understand it,  fraud can be a felony offense.  And yes, fraud is not easy to prove. Still, it would be healthy were we to indict, say, a Citigroup for fraud and force them to defend themselves against a local or Federal law enforcement agent. Now, it brings me to wonder about who we might commit to the slammer, were we to be able to indict and then convict, say, Citigroup of major fraud.  I would assume the agents of that “person” would have to stand-in, i.e., be incarcerated as the living incarnation of the Citigroup person. Otherwise, Citigroup could not be viewed officially as a “person” under any meaningful definition of person (not that Justice Scalia cares such things).

It is fun just to think about Citigroup facing time in prison.  I assume, incidentally that, being convicted of a major felony, the Citigroup person(s) would lose their licenses to continue in the banking business.  That in itself, might be useful outcome.

And on that other planet known as the Strange Land of Cain,  the Godfather of lousy pizza, Mr. Herman Cain has proposed a very basic tax structure, he calls the 9-9-9 plan. He boasts that it is simple. Of such plans, H.L. Mencken once said, “For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong."