In Delaware, Corporations Can Now Vote. Are We Insane? | Common Dreams
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In the United States of America, this is what it has come to.

Seriously. Not dystopian science fiction or a new novel by an AI version of George Orwell. Actual corporations — what America’s first Supreme Court Justice, John Marshall, in 1819 called “an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law” — are today voting in elections for everything from the mayor and town council to referendums on corporate taxes and limits on corporate behavior.

What could possibly go wrong?

There are, after all, more corporations than people in Delaware. They can now decide who’s going to run the government, what the laws are, and — through their votes to elect humans who’ll take corporate money to do what corporations want (something else that corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court legalized) — even what regulations companies must follow and what limits there are on their behavior.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.caEnglish
    01·
    18 days ago

    You should only be able to vote if you pay taxes. I’m pretty sure that would exclude most of the “On paper only” corporations that were formed for some sort of underhanded purpose (like to not pay taxes).

    • AreaSIX @lemmy.zip
      English
      8·
      18 days ago

      You should only be able to vote if you pay taxes.

      This seems like a very weird proposition to me. So if you’re unemployed, no vote, but if you are a legal construct without a soul or a conscience, but you pay taxes, you’re welcome to vote? How is this sensible? It’s kind of discouraging and a little jarring to hear regular people valuing their fellow citizens by the taxes they pay. Paying taxes is certainly not the only way you can contribute to society, and shouldn’t be used to gatekeep your participation in said society.

      • piccolo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        31·
        18 days ago

        Unemployed pay taxes on unemployment wages. They pay sales taxes. And countless other taxes… Only way to avoid paying taxes is not exist in society.

        • CyberSeeker@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          31·
          18 days ago

          This is patently false; what if you are provided for by someone else? What if you are not eligible to collect unemployment benefits?

          • piccolo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            32·
            18 days ago

            If someone manages to live without paying taxes, i think they’ll be perfectly fine not needing to vote cause they already living the dream.