Except the problem is they are a person. After that, there comes the status of corporate privilege. How can a crony understand the difference? They cannot.
What have Democrats done to fight Corporate power? Pelosi and Biden controlled the Federal Government for two years. I didn’t see any Legislation from them. Pelosi has a made fortune in the stock market investing in CORPORATIONS.
I’m no fan of McConnell, but I don’t see the Biden and the Democrats taking on Corporate America. They controlled Congress for two years and all they did was spend borrowed money and go after Donald Trump. Pelosi has made a fortune in the Stock Market investing in Corporations.
NOPE! Dem constituents sat on the COMFY COUCH in 2010, 2012, and 2014 vs giving President Obama had a MAJORITY!! Betting 2016 would have been different 😜
Absolutely. Shareholders in any corporation that is treated as a person are ignoring the corporations autonomy by using its money for their own goals. The corporation, which consists of thousands to millions of workers, must be allowed free will. This means that every cell of its being must be allowed to voice its opinion.
@@youtubesucks1499 being payed under minimum wage, not being payed full over time, taking away tips, unfair working hours and many others, it's a genuine issue and I implore everyone to look into it
@@youtubesucks1499 no they steal it because they literally cant afford it, im not condoning it, just saying there's a reason crime rates fall when people can afford things. Also the vast majority aren't shoplifting 700 dollar merchandise from luxury stores, they're stealing food so they don't starve
@@mandycollette5150 So many quotes on the Net are copied and reiterated with an initial wrong attribution, and then they acquire a life of their own. Therefore, I'm taking your use of it with a grain of salt. I searched for it online but was unable to find a conclusive proof that the author was Mussolini and on what occasion he said it.
@@deanronson6331 I'm not the one that used said quote in this thread, I just showed my enthusiasm for said quote because it rings true! So in light of you inserting your intelligence, I must commend you for not paying close attention to the thread! Congratulations, you're acting like most opinionated folks!!! I will also add that opinions matter not,when truth is the subject at hand!So enjoy that grain of salt!!! Just saying!!! ✌️💜😁
The FEC went in front of the supreme court and said they could burn books if they wanted. That's why the law was overturned. Learn a little bit about something before having strong opinions about it
@@kewltony Yeah, and the Constitution says nothing about the Supreme Court even having the power to overturn laws, technically. That's all based on precedent.
Corporations are OWNED property. OWN is a legal term with a legal definition which precludes ALL rights. This is not just corruption, it is BLATANT corruption.
Getting big money from politics will be a real game-changer for our democracy. It ensures we have candidates who work for the people and not have corporations corrupt our democracy.
Unfortunately there is a large stakeholder group of political consultants, commentators, strategists and pollsters in both parties who rely on donations from giant corporations to pay for their salaries. Campaign finance reform will have to overcome considerable opposition from these people who are embedded within the current system.
...it will require a major progressive shift in the (D) party as many of the party neoliberals are also on the corporate donor lists. All three of those rulings mentioned need to be overturned and the Sherman Antitrust Act given teeth again.
It won't make as big a difference as you think. Instead of buying off politicians, they can just buy off the conservative media, most of which they actually own. And it's not just Fox and Newsmax. They own a LOT of local TV stations. Local news loves to churn out stories like "homeless encampments", "crime on the rise", and "restaurants closing due to high wages" (while they still post 20% margins and are more profitable than literally ever).
I dont see anything in the constitution which gives monopolies rights. I think we need to regress to where companies are not allowed to interfere with our elections as a corporation
They should require the Supreme Court to use direct references from the Constitution to prove any statements of Constitutionality or Unconstitutionality being true. If they don't include references or simply can't prove it, its straight false and invalid ruling.
@@Jormungrandrserpent The Antifederalist Brutus argued that the Supreme Court needed to be overseen by a Tribune, lodged in the House of Representatives... see what they did there with Citizen's United?
If corporations are people. The congress and senate should pass The corporation choice act. If a corporation uses their right as a person for free speech they give up the rights as limited liability.
call write and email to the justices and to your senators and to your representatives ,,,both state and federal and email often. If no one says anything they dont pay attention
I wish you were in our administration, we need people like you more than anything! Thank you for always speaking out. Wish there were more people hearing you.
@@2cartalkers Skilling was the Enron CEO and served 12 years in prison. DOJ is still considering criminal charges against Boeing. Zillions huh. Name some more please.
Thanks for getting all our blood pressure up this morning Robert. This is a big one for me too. We really need to revamp the Supreme Court so it is actually representative of our Constitution.
@@dueydrew7172 Eliminate Citizen's United at the level of the House of Representatives and then institute a Tribune in the House that oversees the decisions of the Supreme Court. If those decisions are B.S. or undermine our Republican form of government in any way, they can be rejected.
In England, King Henry the Seventh banned private armies but in America the SCOTUS essentially made the equivalent financial muscle and power legally available with that so called "citizens" united.
Thank you! This is one of your best videos. It is ironic that conservative justices who CLAIM to interpret the constitution in line with the times and mindset of the original framers, would equate citizenship with corporations, ie. the 14th amendment
Bravo Robert! And let's not forget the 1886 decision in which SCOTUS extended the Equal Protection Clause in the 14 Amendment (meant to protect former slaves) to corporations as persons. Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad. Did we really fight the Civil War for nothing? Did 620,000 Americans die in that conflict for nothing? Just to consolidate corporate power over government? What kind of nation do we want to be?
Thom Hartman introduced me to the Santa Clara vs Southern Pacific law suit that started the move toward Corporate personhood in the 1890s (i am guessing, my memory is fading). For over 100 years, America has been sliding toward facism. A Republican mantra has been "the business of government is business." Democrats have fallen in line and give out tax credits as legal bribery. You fund my election and I will earmark tax credits for your Corporate project. I am 78yo and will never see the day when America wrestles control over the Corporations, maybe none of us will, since they control our government, all branches of government and yet pay for none of the expenses.
@@Siskos-pn7nd Agreed but at least we get some progressive social, economic, environmental and labor legislation with the Democrats vs the regressive Republicans. R for Republican? More like R for Regressive.
The Framers were also very serious about retaining the voice of the people in the House of Representatives, as regards issues of import to us, the people. There is also much discussion regarding barriers to factions and combinations, which it is crucial to repress. In the House, the strategy was that the large number of issues would align against faction having any influence, but in a two party system, this structure is immediately undermined.
@@FarmerBrutus Elkins & McKitrick, in their Hamiltonian tome on the 1790s, noted that one of the reasons that Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison pushed for the Constitution was to quell the abuses that were occurring in State Houses with regard to Revolutionary War Debts. They saw the kinds of yokels that were empowering themselves there and made the Senate the "upper chamber" with far more important duties. It baffles me to think that the shenanigans that are occurring in the House these days are done by people who venerate the Framers and patriotism the way that they do. Likewise, with what you were mentioning about factionalism, it's completely ridiculous how a state with 120,000 people like Wyoming or South Dakota has a disproportionate amount of power compared to a state like California with millions of people.
@@Rhythmicons The Senate is supposed to regulate economic and administrative activities at the National level, from the perspective of their own State. The House brings the Peoples of the States' perspectives to the Federal level. The representation in the House is proportional to the population of the State, it is supposed to have EQUAL power to the Senate and the Executive, rendering the power of the people proportional. Every State must be equally represented as a State, just as Nations must have equal representation in International bodies, which is why we all have two Senators. The corruption in the State Houses under the Articles of Confederation, is why the Framers wrote the Constitution that we are supposed to have. Have a gander in John Adams' "Defense of the Constitutions of the Governments of the United States" for a deeper understanding of a balanced government. "That the strong will oppress the weak is proven on every page of the history of the whole world" John Adams
@@FarmerBrutus Atkins, Jonathan M. From Confederation to Nation: The Early American Republic, 1789-1848. New York: Routledge, 2016. Elkins, Stanley and Eric McKitrick. The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788-1800. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Howe, David Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Johnson, Paul E. The Early American Republic: 1789-1829. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Meier, Pauline. Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010. Watson, Henry L. Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America. New York: Hill and Wang, 1990. Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early American Republic, 1789-1815. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
@@Rhythmicons I wrote most of these titles down. I may take a gander at some of these opinions (the first one likely). What I have discovered over the years is that the best way to understand an institution, or an idea, is to read what it's founders intended. We can never really know the motives behind why someone wrote about it much later in time. John Adams' "Defense" was a timely and influential work that informed the Framers. A more incisive work is "Documents of Revolution", which contains the Federalist and the Antifederalist papers. There we can read what was being argued for and criticized, both, by individuals who cared about the final outcome. Remember, without the Antifederalists, we wouldn't even have had a Bill of Rights.
We'd literally have to pry corporate money from politician's greedy little fingers. They'll never choose to let go, not even the dems. Why would any of them give up power and wealth? Their sick with it. I'd say voting is our only hope but, with all the gerrymandering, not even sure we're gonna have that ability for much longer. I'll for sure continue to vote my conscience but, late stage capitalism makes this all feel incredibly hopeless.
At least if we vote democrat, they have a history of taxing corporations higher (but not *small* businesses), and more of those tax dollars go to services for PEOPLE.
I was asking my cable company the other day why my rates always get hiked ? They said ... Talk to your congressman , Cuz bribing the gubberment aint cheap ,,, Don't cha know ?!?
Someone once published a book criticising Justin Trudeau. He was arrested for creating an unregistered political ad. We can't let this happen in America.
I've said it often, and it bears repeating - Every candidate should be given a fixed dollar amount for their campaign. If they cannot get their message across with this budget, then they are not up to the task of being a politician. Any candidate who can work on equal footing with their opponent, can speak eloquently enough to get their message across, can hire effective staff, and use their budget wisely is demonstrating everything a representative of the people will need as their duly elected official.
The principles of a corporation, that is the executive officers, the board of directors, and the voting shareholders should be held personally responsible for any breaking of the law or violation of regulations. These people decide what the corporation does. They are the ones responsible. Corporations do have limited liabilities, for the normal course of business. Breaking the law and violating regulations is NOT normal course of business. When people are held accountable for their acts, then there will be justice.
Serve in the military, be drafted, sit on jury, be falsely arrested and spend time in prison. But as a real person, you can buy a stock in a prison corporation that will spend the profits buying a congress and their own shares. It's great when people work together but not in government. SORRY.🙄
Tell Republicans a bunch of ranchers and farmers would benefit from vote by mail. Can't just pick up and go to town, if that day is election day, they can't vote.
Nebraska Republican politicians already know that. They used to brag about how allowing mail in voting in Nebraska really increased Republican voting and made the state even redder. And then Trump created the big lie about 2020 and they are screwed. They can't say mail in voting is safe, because then Trump would attack them and they wouldn't get reelected. They also can't say mail in voting isn't safe, because then the only voters in their district would be the liberals in the village and they wouldn't get reelected. So they try real hard to change the subject when it comes up, almost as if their jobs depended on it.
You know exactly when the polls open. The Tuesday after the first Monday of November. If you can’t plan your day well in advance to make time to go vote then you shouldn’t vote
Thank you so much for all you do to help us fully understand how things got this way and what there is to do about it. Your information is so valuable!
And those corporations "People" are treated with deference and held to a different standard than real "people." They pay less in taxes or no tax at all as compared to the middle class taxpayer. And they're given unnecessary tax cuts (that bust the deficit) with no strings attached - no requirement that they act honestly with their largesse, no string to clean up their pollution and businesses, or green them,. No string to raise the pay -- given they have billions in profits - of their lowest tier workers. No string to not buy back their own stocks. Mind you, they all enjoy the benefits that the middle class pays for.
They literally steal BILLIONS from the poorest of our society and they go unpunished. UHC is still stealing $ from the government and they are being given a pass. Call these companies out and make them pay amends for what they have stolen.
At one time, corporations in the US were limited in scope and time. They needed to define a purpose and define a time period to accomplish that. After the time limit, the corporation would be dissolved.
Corporations also enjoy a huge tax advantage. Corporations are taxed on their profit while people are taxed on their revenue. The people must demand equality in taxation as long as corporations are considered a "person."
Humans are just “resources”, expendable and replaceable, by the anthropomorphic corporations. That’s why the department dealing with employees is called Human Resources (HR).
I think the definition of a person is simple and clearly defined. 1. A person can be sent to prison. (Can't send a business to prison, thus disqualified from person hood) 2. A person can express what a prison is, in verbal or written communication. (You can send an animal to prison, but it cannot define what prison is.)
Any new laws and Justice Alito will site some obscure 1045 A.D King's law as precedence overturning any new laws. We need empeachment and removal of 2 Justices and age forced retirement for all Justice's. (a minimum age and experience level wouldn't be bad either.)
What we need is term limits. Not age restrictions. Implementing age restrictions just bares someone who is smart and fit for the job, but old from candidacy, simply because they're old, which isn't fair either.
@gabetalks9275 But term limits also bar smart people. What about when a very smart liberal judge's term limit runs out when a republican president is in office? What needs to happen, is to not let the crap that Mitch McConnell pulled ever happen again. They should not be allowed to just say, 'nope were not going to hold a vote, or a hearing for a Supreme Court appointee.' Same for what he did for all the federal judges that are helping Trump and conservative causes. Similar thing with the postal service.
@@SweetStuffOnMonarchLane Term limits keeps things fair. You can't bend the roles solely to give liberals an advantage. That's not how democracy works. Supreme Court justices should be elected in by the people with mandatory term limits and a required set of balance to prevent the court from being lopsided like it is now. Having Supreme Court justices be appointed by President or the Congress is what leads to the ruling presidency being allowed to stack the courts in their favor. And those justices have no accountability because they know they're guaranteed the position for life. If they had term limits, then they would feel so comfortable undermining democracy. They do it because they know they're a protected class with almost total immunity, so they know that they will almost always get away with it.
Glad you posted this. Corporations are the biggest threat to American democracy. In July, the IRS issues it's Corporations Income tax report, for 2022 (a 2 to 3 year lag). For 10 years, I have analyzed these reports and found Corporations pay less than a penny (.008) in effective income taxes, compared to Individual income taxpayers who pay 12%. Corporations pay a mere pittance of about $250 billion. Individuals pay about $1.5 Trillion. Spending is much higher so we borrow the rest and guess who pays the higher debt? Individuals. Corporations freeload off the 167 million Individual taxpayers because they buy the Congress who writes the income tax rules for their benefit. Both parties do this.
The right to petition of the first amendment cannot be mean that the one with more money to lobby has more rights than the average population. Your rights end where my begins, and my rights end where yours begins. What we have now is legalized corruption, and that is the root of why the health care system is broken and so many other problem we face in the U.S.
And every year they are given massive multi million dollar subsidies. WHY? I thought subsidies were for regular citizens to help them create new businesses not billion dollar corporations to squander on CEO saleries and stockholders 😡🤬‼️‼️‼️‼️
With all the focus on fascism, vital as it is, the parallel threat of state capture is ignored at our peril. The notion that corporations are people is ridiculous on its face, and frankly, anyone operating under it needs to have their head (and bank account) examined.
I’ve often brought to the attention of those who bother to pay attention the remarks of William O Douglas, retired Supreme Court judge when asked the best and worst decisions the court had made; The best he said was Civil Rights legislation The worst was something he said would eventually come back to haunt the democracy: giving the same rights of individuals to corporations.
SCOTUS ruling to give human rights to a business is nakedly stupid. then same SCOTUS restricts women rights. That is Soviet Style Rot in the USA. Conservatives always are - the weakest link.
It's not the only parallel either, in the Soviet-Union it became more and more restrictive on what was "communist" enough to pass. Stalin had already severely restricted it after he crushed the NEP and they just continued to do that until the definition of "communism" became so narrow almost no pragmatism was possible anymore. When Gorbachov actually tried to enact reform to cut military spending, build up light industry, create government markets, open up trade to capitalist countries and other things (None of which included privitization, it was government markets, not private ones) the conservatives in the Soviet Union rebelled and staged a military coup. They found a blustering idiot named Boris Yeltsin who became their puppet and made Russia independent. There is this narrative of economic collapse in the Soviet-Union but that happened as a result of it's collapse, it wasn't the cause of it. The cause was the military coup against Gorbachov by Soviet conservatives. Most of the big players of the coup actually got off really well and several are the Russian oligarchy we see today or their children are.
The US is falling into the same problem where it becomes more and more extreme. Where any notion away from "freedom" is instantly struck down no matter how necessary it is and anything that involves "They now have the right to" is approved no matter how bad an idea it is. The veneration of "freedom" has become more important than the actual reality of the world.
Thank you, Mr. Reich, for that intelligent history lesson in how the corruption present in American politics seems to be taking us back to the 1800s! It is unbearable to me the amount of lies and moral decline since the MAGA mob cult.😥
Trump is leading in the polls. Following his ridiculous "conviction" he raised $50 million in 24 hours. Clearly, the people have absolutely had it with politics as usual, and the "cult", which consists of 70 million people, is going to elect him. I'd suggest you move to Russia, which seems like your kind of place.
@@leobigelow7021 Trump loves Putin as the dictator that Trump wants to be. \ Putin sees Trump as a useful idiot. That's why Russia heeded Trump's calls to hack Hillary's emails in 2016.
the idea that coorps are fucking somehow capable of personhood in spite of an incapacity to be appropriately dealt with regarding responsibility for crime or selective service has been rattling around in my mind for a while tbh
One of the few things america got wrong when we borrowed the british legal system that once had a king who occasionally meted out harsh punishment. How would corporate officers behave if they knew the officers could face capital punishment for malfeasance? What would be an acceptable replacement in america? Because fines, sanctions, and jail time doesn't seem to be effective? e.g. Enron, WorldCom, Trump Co., etc., etc.
This is why we're not a democracy any more. When corporations have more representation than individuals, then we are a corpocracy - obviously, since gozillionaires own these corporations, we also have oligarchy.
All of the rights and none of the responsibilities.
exactly
Or taxes!😤🤬
Same for the press like cnn.
Nailed it Tom. 🍻
@@aaronjjacques Nice try, Russian troll.
End CITIZENS UNITED NOW!!!!!
What was citizens united trying to show to the public?
The problem isn't even just that corporations have "Personhood", it's that they have "PlatinumPlus Preferred™ Personhood".
Except the problem is they are a person. After that, there comes the status of corporate privilege.
How can a crony understand the difference? They cannot.
You can actually thank Mitch McConnell and the GOP Mafia for this!!
What have Democrats done to fight Corporate power? Pelosi and Biden controlled the Federal Government for two years. I didn’t see any Legislation from them. Pelosi has a made fortune in the stock market investing in CORPORATIONS.
No it goes back to a corrupt nineteenth century supreme court judge
I’m no fan of McConnell, but I don’t see the Biden and the Democrats taking on Corporate America. They controlled Congress for two years and all they did was spend borrowed money and go after Donald Trump. Pelosi has made a fortune in the Stock Market investing in Corporations.
The Busch family
NOPE! Dem constituents sat on the COMFY COUCH in 2010, 2012, and 2014 vs giving President Obama had a MAJORITY!!
Betting 2016 would have been different 😜
Another thing you forgot to mention. People pay taxes
But corporations evade them.
If you think people don’t, ask Hunter Biden.
If corporations are people, then owning a corporation violates our anti-slavery laws.
Where are people not getting paid?
Bingo
@@Shawn-gr5ww Getting paid? If corporations are people (which they aren't) then owning one ... blah blah.
Try to keep up.
👏👏 love that you twisted the logic right back at these people. I always sAy law is just the ability to bend logic any way you want
Absolutely. Shareholders in any corporation that is treated as a person are ignoring the corporations autonomy by using its money for their own goals. The corporation, which consists of thousands to millions of workers, must be allowed free will. This means that every cell of its being must be allowed to voice its opinion.
Wage theft is a larger problem than shoplifting ever has been
How are your wages being stolen?
Exactly. People wouldn't have to steal if they could buy things legally with no problem.
@@daniellepointer8495 They can buy things legally, they choose not to.
If stealing $700 worth of merchandise is a misdemeanor... why pay?
@@youtubesucks1499 being payed under minimum wage, not being payed full over time, taking away tips, unfair working hours and many others, it's a genuine issue and I implore everyone to look into it
@@youtubesucks1499 no they steal it because they literally cant afford it, im not condoning it, just saying there's a reason crime rates fall when people can afford things. Also the vast majority aren't shoplifting 700 dollar merchandise from luxury stores, they're stealing food so they don't starve
If I steal from a company, it's a criminal matter.
If a company steals from me, it's a civil matter.
Yep.
"Fascism is the merger of corporations and the State." Mussolini
Never heard a truer statement!!! Hats off my friend!!!
there are a number of asian countries close to that already
@@mandycollette5150 So many quotes on the Net are copied and reiterated with an initial wrong attribution, and then they acquire a life of their own. Therefore, I'm taking your use of it with a grain of salt. I searched for it online but was unable to find a conclusive proof that the author was Mussolini and on what occasion he said it.
@@deanronson6331 I'm not the one that used said quote in this thread, I just showed my enthusiasm for said quote because it rings true! So in light of you inserting your intelligence, I must commend you for not paying close attention to the thread! Congratulations, you're acting like most opinionated folks!!!
I will also add that opinions matter not,when truth is the subject at hand!So enjoy that grain of salt!!! Just saying!!! ✌️💜😁
Search harder@@deanronson6331
This is one of the worst things that has ever happened in America.
"Citizens" United
Amen!!
It was the name of the organization that sued.
@@doomsdayrabbit4398 a fake grass roots organisation, a front for corporations.
The FEC went in front of the supreme court and said they could burn books if they wanted. That's why the law was overturned. Learn a little bit about something before having strong opinions about it
@@kewltony Yeah, and the Constitution says nothing about the Supreme Court even having the power to overturn laws, technically. That's all based on precedent.
Ah, so we ARE a socialist nation… for corporations.
Yes, socialism for corporations, and crony capitalism for the rest of us
No we are in a tyrannical, fascist society as slaves of the Board of Directors & their attorneys.
No, we are an oligarchy run by the mega wealthy who own the corporations that are represented by their lapdogs in the Supreme Court and congress.
Not really. More like a communism.
"I didn't bribe the police officer! I just spoke to him with $100 bills!" This is why money should not enjoy the same protections as free speech.
Nice example!
Just as I cannot buy food for my family or myself with pleasant words, or by asking nicely.
Great point!!
While we're at it, let's get money out of the Supreme Court too.
Corporations are OWNED property.
OWN is a legal term with a legal definition which precludes ALL rights.
This is not just corruption, it is BLATANT corruption.
Great point, but hey when you have a right wing scotus, the law does not matter....just their feelings.
yes it is corruption ,but legalised
Silence for 12 long YEARS IS COMPLICITY 🤬
…and the Supreme Court is owned…
That is an excellent point! Wow! I'm using that from now on! Thank you!
The US Constitution must be Amended, the Separation of Wealth and State is necessary to protect Democracy.
Democracy is an illusion that the vast majority of functional imbeciles believes is real...
that is a great way to put it, and would be a great addition to the constitution
#ReverseCtizensUnited
I love it: separation of wealth and state!
The problem isn’t the US Constitution, the problem is the people (on the Supreme Court) who are interpreting it -incorrectly.
Getting big money from politics will be a real game-changer for our democracy. It ensures we have candidates who work for the people and not have corporations corrupt our democracy.
Buying politicians has NEVER been defensible - yet has ALWAYS been the American Way.......but exactly why?
No no, Game Changer is Robert’s son, Sam.
…sorry, had to make the joke. But you’re 100% right
Unfortunately there is a large stakeholder group of political consultants, commentators, strategists and pollsters in both parties who rely on donations from giant corporations to pay for their salaries. Campaign finance reform will have to overcome considerable opposition from these people who are embedded within the current system.
...it will require a major progressive shift in the (D) party as many of the party neoliberals are also on the corporate donor lists.
All three of those rulings mentioned need to be overturned and the Sherman Antitrust Act given teeth again.
It won't make as big a difference as you think. Instead of buying off politicians, they can just buy off the conservative media, most of which they actually own. And it's not just Fox and Newsmax. They own a LOT of local TV stations. Local news loves to churn out stories like "homeless encampments", "crime on the rise", and "restaurants closing due to high wages" (while they still post 20% margins and are more profitable than literally ever).
I dont see anything in the constitution which gives monopolies rights. I think we need to regress to where companies are not allowed to interfere with our elections as a corporation
They should require the Supreme Court to use direct references from the Constitution to prove any statements of Constitutionality or Unconstitutionality being true. If they don't include references or simply can't prove it, its straight false and invalid ruling.
@@Jormungrandrserpent The Antifederalist Brutus argued that the Supreme Court needed to be overseen by a Tribune, lodged in the House of Representatives... see what they did there with Citizen's United?
The former gov of Texas, Ann Richards said "I'll believe a corporation is a person when they hang one".
Ann Richards was a party clown in a dress. If she was male, there's no way in hell she would have been elected to anything, ever.
If corporations are people. The congress and senate should pass The corporation choice act. If a corporation uses their right as a person for free speech they give up the rights as limited liability.
We need an amendment that says corporations aren't people.
People won't wake up!!! 😔
How many times do we have to bring this to the attention of people, just for them to do nothing? I'm so tired of our system
You can help by stopping your doomer speak.
If this is all you can do, be quiet.
@@cmack17 oh I'm sorry I get outraged by this shit. Freedom of speech is for everyone not just for those who say what you wanna hear, grow up
call write and email to the justices and to your senators and to your representatives ,,,both state and federal and email often. If no one says anything they dont pay attention
It's been a century at least. This is why being concerned about media literacy and education was important BEFORE it was an emergency.
Worse yet, is when people defend the very perpetrators who are emptying their pockets.🤦♂️
The supreme court strikes again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is it the supreme court, or the bad (for democracy) apples in it?
@@hugh261 corrupt judge on the supreme court allowed this to happen in a case that dates back to the 19th century
I wish you were in our administration, we need people like you more than anything! Thank you for always speaking out. Wish there were more people hearing you.
Same here.. Instead we had a moron who doesn't even understand how money nor government lending works.. X(
Corporations commit crimes and yet that entity and their CEO's escape punishment.
Not true. Ask Skilling, Ebbers and Kozlowski just to name a few.
@@player627 That is managing the exception. most get off Scott free. Boeing CEO, the past CEO of Enron and zillions of others.
@@2cartalkers Skilling was the Enron CEO and served 12 years in prison. DOJ is still considering criminal charges against Boeing. Zillions huh. Name some more please.
@@player627 Sorry, i meany MegaZillions. Don't DEFEND THEM!
Thanks for getting all our blood pressure up this morning Robert. This is a big one for me too. We really need to revamp the Supreme Court so it is actually representative of our Constitution.
What do you revamp the Supreme Court?
@@dueydrew7172 Eliminate Citizen's United at the level of the House of Representatives and then institute a Tribune in the House that oversees the decisions of the Supreme Court. If those decisions are B.S. or undermine our Republican form of government in any way, they can be rejected.
Yeah, it'z suppoze to be....Tzzzp behind that?
In England, King Henry the Seventh banned private armies but in America the SCOTUS essentially made the equivalent financial muscle and power legally available with that so called "citizens" united.
Bravo...thank you for tackling this for regular folks to understand. Gut Citizens United!
If money is speech then the poor are being oppressed by living in poverty.
🎯 💯
Thank you! This is one of your best videos. It is ironic that conservative justices who CLAIM to interpret the constitution in line with the times and mindset of the original framers, would equate citizenship with corporations, ie. the 14th amendment
BTW To be a citizen of the United States, you must be BORN or Naturalized first. Which one are corporations?
Bravo Robert! And let's not forget the 1886 decision in which SCOTUS extended the Equal Protection Clause in the 14 Amendment (meant to protect former slaves) to corporations as persons. Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad. Did we really fight the Civil War for nothing? Did 620,000 Americans die in that conflict for nothing? Just to consolidate corporate power over government? What kind of nation do we want to be?
Thom Hartman introduced me to the Santa Clara vs Southern Pacific law suit that started the move toward Corporate personhood in the 1890s (i am guessing, my memory is fading). For over 100 years, America has been sliding toward facism. A Republican mantra has been "the business of government is business." Democrats have fallen in line and give out tax credits as legal bribery. You fund my election and I will earmark tax credits for your Corporate project. I am 78yo and will never see the day when America wrestles control over the Corporations, maybe none of us will, since they control our government, all branches of government and yet pay for none of the expenses.
@@Siskos-pn7nd Agreed but at least we get some progressive social, economic, environmental and labor legislation with the Democrats vs the regressive Republicans. R for Republican? More like R for Regressive.
We need a constitutional convention to create several corrective amendments.
The sad part is that the Framers were generally opposed to corporations because of the looming power of generational wealth.
The Framers were also very serious about retaining the voice of the people in the House of Representatives, as regards issues of import to us, the people. There is also much discussion regarding barriers to factions and combinations, which it is crucial to repress. In the House, the strategy was that the large number of issues would align against faction having any influence, but in a two party system, this structure is immediately undermined.
@@FarmerBrutus Elkins & McKitrick, in their Hamiltonian tome on the 1790s, noted that one of the reasons that Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison pushed for the Constitution was to quell the abuses that were occurring in State Houses with regard to Revolutionary War Debts. They saw the kinds of yokels that were empowering themselves there and made the Senate the "upper chamber" with far more important duties. It baffles me to think that the shenanigans that are occurring in the House these days are done by people who venerate the Framers and patriotism the way that they do. Likewise, with what you were mentioning about factionalism, it's completely ridiculous how a state with 120,000 people like Wyoming or South Dakota has a disproportionate amount of power compared to a state like California with millions of people.
@@Rhythmicons The Senate is supposed to regulate economic and administrative activities at the National level, from the perspective of their own State. The House brings the Peoples of the States' perspectives to the Federal level. The representation in the House is proportional to the population of the State, it is supposed to have EQUAL power to the Senate and the Executive, rendering the power of the people proportional. Every State must be equally represented as a State, just as Nations must have equal representation in International bodies, which is why we all have two Senators. The corruption in the State Houses under the Articles of Confederation, is why the Framers wrote the Constitution that we are supposed to have. Have a gander in John Adams' "Defense of the Constitutions of the Governments of the United States" for a deeper understanding of a balanced government. "That the strong will oppress the weak is proven on every page of the history of the whole world" John Adams
@@FarmerBrutus Atkins, Jonathan M. From Confederation to Nation: The Early American Republic, 1789-1848. New York: Routledge, 2016.
Elkins, Stanley and Eric McKitrick. The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788-1800. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Howe, David Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Johnson, Paul E. The Early American Republic: 1789-1829. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Meier, Pauline. Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.
Watson, Henry L. Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America. New York: Hill and Wang, 1990.
Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early American Republic, 1789-1815. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
@@Rhythmicons I wrote most of these titles down. I may take a gander at some of these opinions (the first one likely). What I have discovered over the years is that the best way to understand an institution, or an idea, is to read what it's founders intended. We can never really know the motives behind why someone wrote about it much later in time. John Adams' "Defense" was a timely and influential work that informed the Framers. A more incisive work is "Documents of Revolution", which contains the Federalist and the Antifederalist papers. There we can read what was being argued for and criticized, both, by individuals who cared about the final outcome. Remember, without the Antifederalists, we wouldn't even have had a Bill of Rights.
We also need term limits for the House and Senate and end lifetime appointments for all Federal Judicial Appointments. 10 years Max,
Robert Reich is absolutely right!!!!!!!
Robert, i'll take: "What is corruption?" for five hundred buy back stocks.
Corruption.
The power of the corporations is there to ensure that the caste system in the United States remains in place.
It Is We the people not we the corporations
We'd literally have to pry corporate money from politician's greedy little fingers. They'll never choose to let go, not even the dems. Why would any of them give up power and wealth? Their sick with it. I'd say voting is our only hope but, with all the gerrymandering, not even sure we're gonna have that ability for much longer. I'll for sure continue to vote my conscience but, late stage capitalism makes this all feel incredibly hopeless.
Who to vote for?
At least if we vote democrat, they have a history of taxing corporations higher (but not *small* businesses), and more of those tax dollars go to services for PEOPLE.
Poor people can't afford to run for office
Overturning Citizens United alone would solve a LOT of the country's problems.
What part of the FEC's argument did you find convincing?
Since SCOTUS created the concept of corporate person hood, we should be able to tax them at the individual tax rates...
Only people can be persons. Remove corporations from having person's rights.
I was asking my cable company the other day why my rates always get hiked ?
They said ... Talk to your congressman , Cuz bribing the gubberment aint cheap ,,, Don't cha know ?!?
This is an important lesson, and everyone should pay attention. Thank you, Professor Reich!
Someone once published a book criticising Justin Trudeau. He was arrested for creating an unregistered political ad.
We can't let this happen in America.
I've said it often, and it bears repeating - Every candidate should be given a fixed dollar amount for their campaign. If they cannot get their message across with this budget, then they are not up to the task of being a politician. Any candidate who can work on equal footing with their opponent, can speak eloquently enough to get their message across, can hire effective staff, and use their budget wisely is demonstrating everything a representative of the people will need as their duly elected official.
We tried fighting this law over 30 yrs ago and here we are
What we really need is people that care about these things.
I thank the Luckiest of Stars we have thinkers like Secretary Reich who can lay it out so clearly how we got here with case law and logic.
The principles of a corporation, that is the executive officers, the board of directors, and the voting shareholders should be held personally responsible for any breaking of the law or violation of regulations. These people decide what the corporation does. They are the ones responsible.
Corporations do have limited liabilities, for the normal course of business. Breaking the law and violating regulations is NOT normal course of business. When people are held accountable for their acts, then there will be justice.
Corporations are people... Immortal people that can't be punched or get sick or be arrested....
Serve in the military, be drafted, sit on jury, be falsely arrested and spend time in prison.
But as a real person, you can buy a stock in a prison corporation that will spend the profits buying a congress and their own shares. It's great when people work together but not in government. SORRY.🙄
THAT explanation of corps are people is one of the biggest horse hockey EVER.
We can thank the Republicans for this gem.
I sincerely believe this is the most important step to change. Corporations are obviously not persons.
Hooray Bob! Thank you so much for clarifying and bringing this out. I hope that it will be watched by millions.!!!!!👍🏼
Tell Republicans a bunch of ranchers and farmers would benefit from vote by mail. Can't just pick up and go to town, if that day is election day, they can't vote.
Nebraska Republican politicians already know that. They used to brag about how allowing mail in voting in Nebraska really increased Republican voting and made the state even redder. And then Trump created the big lie about 2020 and they are screwed.
They can't say mail in voting is safe, because then Trump would attack them and they wouldn't get reelected. They also can't say mail in voting isn't safe, because then the only voters in their district would be the liberals in the village and they wouldn't get reelected. So they try real hard to change the subject when it comes up, almost as if their jobs depended on it.
You know exactly when the polls open. The Tuesday after the first Monday of November. If you can’t plan your day well in advance to make time to go vote then you shouldn’t vote
.... doesn't that give corporations more than one vote, through bribery?.... RICO....
Too bad they don't have the right to go to jail
Thank you Robert for continuing to educate me in the failures of our democracy. Hopefully we get it back under control of the People.
Why are internationally owned entities allowed to contribute to American political politics? Who gives any of these “people” citizenship?
Something has to be done about corporate lobbying in Congress too!
Thank you so much for all you do to help us fully understand how things got this way and what there is to do about it. Your information is so valuable!
"Corporations are people" was the beginning of the end for the American experiment.
And those corporations "People" are treated with deference and held to a different standard than real "people." They pay less in taxes or no tax at all as compared to the middle class taxpayer. And they're given unnecessary tax cuts (that bust the deficit) with no strings attached - no requirement that they act honestly with their largesse, no string to clean up their pollution and businesses, or green them,. No string to raise the pay -- given they have billions in profits - of their lowest tier workers. No string to not buy back their own stocks. Mind you, they all enjoy the benefits that the middle class pays for.
They literally steal BILLIONS from the poorest of our society and they go unpunished. UHC is still stealing $ from the government and they are being given a pass. Call these companies out and make them pay amends for what they have stolen.
“Democrats care about people. Republicans care about money”
- Bette Davis
😂
If corporations have the same rights as people why don’t we start a movement so people can have the same rights as corporations.
Because the government is so powerful now. That won't be in their own self interest to give power back to us.
At one time, corporations in the US were limited in scope and time.
They needed to define a purpose and define a time period to accomplish that. After the time limit, the corporation would be dissolved.
Corporations also enjoy a huge tax advantage. Corporations are taxed on their profit while people are taxed on their revenue. The people must demand equality in taxation as long as corporations are considered a "person."
The top 10 percent pay 75 percent of the taxes in this country.
When companies became "people" employees stopped being treated as human!
Humans are just “resources”, expendable and replaceable, by the anthropomorphic corporations. That’s why the department dealing with employees is called Human Resources (HR).
I think the definition of a person is simple and clearly defined.
1. A person can be sent to prison. (Can't send a business to prison, thus disqualified from person hood)
2. A person can express what a prison is, in verbal or written communication. (You can send an animal to prison, but it cannot define what prison is.)
So, a baby is a person?!
Any new laws and Justice Alito will site some obscure 1045 A.D King's law as precedence overturning any new laws. We need empeachment and removal of 2 Justices and age forced retirement for all Justice's. (a minimum age and experience level wouldn't be bad either.)
What we need is term limits. Not age restrictions. Implementing age restrictions just bares someone who is smart and fit for the job, but old from candidacy, simply because they're old, which isn't fair either.
@gabetalks9275 But term limits also bar smart people. What about when a very smart liberal judge's term limit runs out when a republican president is in office? What needs to happen, is to not let the crap that Mitch McConnell pulled ever happen again. They should not be allowed to just say, 'nope were not going to hold a vote, or a hearing for a Supreme Court appointee.' Same for what he did for all the federal judges that are helping Trump and conservative causes. Similar thing with the postal service.
@@SweetStuffOnMonarchLane Term limits keeps things fair. You can't bend the roles solely to give liberals an advantage. That's not how democracy works. Supreme Court justices should be elected in by the people with mandatory term limits and a required set of balance to prevent the court from being lopsided like it is now. Having Supreme Court justices be appointed by President or the Congress is what leads to the ruling presidency being allowed to stack the courts in their favor. And those justices have no accountability because they know they're guaranteed the position for life. If they had term limits, then they would feel so comfortable undermining democracy. They do it because they know they're a protected class with almost total immunity, so they know that they will almost always get away with it.
Glad you posted this. Corporations are the biggest threat to American democracy. In July, the IRS issues it's Corporations Income tax report, for 2022 (a 2 to 3 year lag). For 10 years, I have analyzed these reports and found Corporations pay less than a penny (.008) in effective income taxes, compared to Individual income taxpayers who pay 12%. Corporations pay a mere pittance of about $250 billion. Individuals pay about $1.5 Trillion. Spending is much higher so we borrow the rest and guess who pays the higher debt? Individuals. Corporations freeload off the 167 million Individual taxpayers because they buy the Congress who writes the income tax rules for their benefit. Both parties do this.
This is outrageous....this is crooked with these SCROTUS disgusting tactics.
Citizens United was the beginning of the end of our Republic.😢
SCOTUS: "Money is free speech. Corporations are welcome to come and talk to us anytime".
The right to petition of the first amendment cannot be mean that the one with more money to lobby has more rights than the average population. Your rights end where my begins, and my rights end where yours begins. What we have now is legalized corruption, and that is the root of why the health care system is broken and so many other problem we face in the U.S.
And every year they are given massive multi million dollar subsidies. WHY? I thought subsidies were for regular citizens to help them create new businesses not billion dollar corporations to squander on CEO saleries and stockholders 😡🤬‼️‼️‼️‼️
With all the focus on fascism, vital as it is, the parallel threat of state capture is ignored at our peril.
The notion that corporations are people is ridiculous on its face, and frankly, anyone operating under it needs to have their head (and bank account) examined.
Good luck getting the corruptors to fight corruption.
I’ve often brought to the attention of those who bother to pay attention the remarks of William O Douglas, retired Supreme Court judge when asked the best and worst decisions the court had made;
The best he said was Civil Rights legislation
The worst was something he said would eventually come back to haunt the democracy: giving the same rights of individuals to corporations.
So much for “For the people by the people”
If corporations are people, then they should only have the lifespan of their first CEO.
SCOTUS ruling to give human rights to a business is nakedly stupid. then same SCOTUS restricts women rights. That is Soviet Style Rot in the USA. Conservatives always are - the weakest link.
It's not the only parallel either, in the Soviet-Union it became more and more restrictive on what was "communist" enough to pass. Stalin had already severely restricted it after he crushed the NEP and they just continued to do that until the definition of "communism" became so narrow almost no pragmatism was possible anymore.
When Gorbachov actually tried to enact reform to cut military spending, build up light industry, create government markets, open up trade to capitalist countries and other things (None of which included privitization, it was government markets, not private ones) the conservatives in the Soviet Union rebelled and staged a military coup. They found a blustering idiot named Boris Yeltsin who became their puppet and made Russia independent.
There is this narrative of economic collapse in the Soviet-Union but that happened as a result of it's collapse, it wasn't the cause of it. The cause was the military coup against Gorbachov by Soviet conservatives. Most of the big players of the coup actually got off really well and several are the Russian oligarchy we see today or their children are.
The US is falling into the same problem where it becomes more and more extreme. Where any notion away from "freedom" is instantly struck down no matter how necessary it is and anything that involves "They now have the right to" is approved no matter how bad an idea it is.
The veneration of "freedom" has become more important than the actual reality of the world.
Thank you, Mr. Reich, for that intelligent history lesson in how the corruption present in American politics seems to be taking us back to the 1800s! It is unbearable to me the amount of lies and moral decline since the MAGA mob cult.😥
Trump is leading in the polls. Following his ridiculous "conviction" he raised $50 million in 24 hours. Clearly, the people have absolutely had it with politics as usual, and the "cult", which consists of 70 million people, is going to elect him. I'd suggest you move to Russia, which seems like your kind of place.
@@leobigelow7021 Trump loves Putin as the dictator that Trump wants to be. \
Putin sees Trump as a useful idiot. That's why Russia heeded Trump's calls to hack Hillary's emails in 2016.
So can I become a corporation even though i'm only one person
Thank you Robert Reich!! So intelligent and wise.
I hope we do get corporations out of politics. But it would probably take a supermajority by the dems.
Given the fact that the "conservatives" don't want to conserve, I'd say the phrase is a misnomer. Robber barons and lackeys would be a better phrase.
the idea that coorps are fucking somehow capable of personhood in spite of an incapacity to be appropriately dealt with regarding responsibility for crime or selective service has been rattling around in my mind for a while tbh
People fight and die in wars. Corporations profit from war.
"We the Corporations." Excellent book. This issue has been in the Supreme Court since thee 1800s, if not longer
F citizens united
A corporation is not a person it is a group of people.
you tube is not allowing me to give a like to your program.So, thumbs up Robert Reich.
That happens to me sometimes. I think it's when I've skipped too many commercials, but I can't say for certain.
One of the few things america got wrong when we borrowed the british legal system that once had a king who occasionally meted out harsh punishment.
How would corporate officers behave if they knew the officers could face capital punishment for malfeasance?
What would be an acceptable replacement in america? Because fines, sanctions, and jail time doesn't seem to be effective? e.g. Enron, WorldCom, Trump Co., etc., etc.
This is the expert with the facts, tips, and lawful changes to reverse this .
Reagan lobbied the Supreme Court in 1986 to rule that corporations are people. He succeeded .
Corporations may be 'people' but they're not necessarily Americans.
True!
True! As I recall they convicted the accounting firm Aurther Andreson. Not the people, the firm. I wonder if the corporate logo is still behind bars.
This is why we're not a democracy any more. When corporations have more representation than individuals, then we are a corpocracy - obviously, since gozillionaires own these corporations, we also have oligarchy.
I've said this for years, corporate lobbying needs to be banned.