I recommend you take the time, as I did to watch this 36-minute video about the history of corporations. I knew some of this history…
1770’s: Corporations were hated by America’s founders
Corporations were tightly controlled before the civil war. America’s founders were against corporations. They hated the British East India Company which persuaded the Crown to give them a monopoly on tea in the colonies. It was British East India Company tea that was thrown into the harbor in the Boston Tea Party.
Why weren’t corporations regulated in the Constitution? Because everyone was against them. Corporations were occasionally useful. So they could be chartered for a specific public benefit by a state. They could not change their name or buy any other corporations. They were chartered for a particular period of time and then would have to ask the state for renewal.
The intent of the Constitution was not to give corporations any of the rights of people. To the founders, corporations are not people.
1860’s: Corporations are not people, but gain a few rights
In the mid 1860’s, after the Civil War, America needed rebuilding. A corporation asked a state for relaxation of these rules. The request was granted. 90 years after the Declaration of Independence, America had forgotten. The rise of huge corporations began.
What I didn’t know was that in 1907, Teddy Roosevelt signed the Tillman Act, banning corporations from spending in elections. A quote from him:
The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as “trusts” are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is shown.
1930-1970: People’s movements and prosperity
The video goes on to say that it was the labor movement and then the reforms and regulations during Roosevelt’s administration that led America out of depression and made the financial markets secure. During the 1950’s through 1970’s, America prospered and more movement occurred, including the environmental movement which reigned in corporate pollution. In this world, corporations are not people.
1976+: Corporations gain political power
Starting at about minute 16:30 in the video, the subject matter shifts to how big business got together to take control of American government away from the people. A key figure was Lewis Powell. In a 1971 memo he said, “The creation of corporate rights is “an instrument for social, economic, and political change.” He was a lawyer for the tobacco industry and in 1972 was appointed to the Supreme Court by Richard Nixon.
He was key in a number of decisions, but especially in 1976 he led the ruling that said Candidates may spend unlimited amounts of money on their campaigns. This was the beginning of the notion that “money equals speech.” And in 1978 he rules that legislatures cannot limit corporate political “speech”, and that corporations can influence any ballot initiative.
What the video left out was the 2014 study that showed from 1981 onwards, what the public wanted was no longer reflected in national legislation. What legislation did reflect was what a wealthy corporate elite wanted.
The people should choose
Our founders thought corporations are not people in any sense of the word. They did not intend any of the rights of “natural persons” in the bill of rights to apply to corporations.
Corporations have become wealthy, powerful organizations that live forever and many have bent politics and society to serve them. They, and a few people, have manipulated our law, our parties and our tax code to serve them.
PeopleCount’s mission is to empower people to create and be responsible for accountable democratic government. If We, the People, want corporations to have the same rights as citizens, fine. But it’s our choice. And now is the time that We, the People, choose for ourselves.
Join us in choosing. Add your name to our announcement list to join our beta.
See also this post about America’s Political System was not Designed to handle Corporations