Yup. Mitt Romney is right when he said that corporations are people.
Mitt was referencing the supreme court which upheld corporation's right to donate to political campaigns as they too have a right to freedom of speech.
Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart had a funny take when they said that if corporations are people than Mitt Romney was a serial killer.
And while they made their point hilariously, they touched on a much deeper issue, that people have more responsibilities and less benefits than corporations.
People in a society are members of a social compact. We used to live in tribes and over tens of thousands of years we have transformed tribal living into large societies. But as people, our basic structure remains the same, we live within a group and most of us live within the accepted guidelines of the society... we uphold our social compact so that we can live as social beings.
I'm a capitalist. I'm all for corporations making money.
But if corporations have the rights of people, than they should also have the responsibilities of people.
In a community people shop, live, hire and interact. People instinctively recognize that we need to rely on and support each other in order to thrive.
Corporations rely on our communal structure to make and transport and sell their goods. The police that protects the community protect corporations as well.
And yet if a corporation decides to move overseas or outsource in order to cut labor costs or taxes, than how are they abiding with the terms of the communal social compact?
People are bound by law and their community regardless of their geography. If an american goes overseas and does something which is illegal in the states, they can be prosecuted in the states for their behavior overseas; for example, pedophilia.
And yet American corporations can hire slave labor or what we regular people call slave labor, with no legal consequence.
If Corporations are people than they have rights and they have responsibilities.
If corporations are not people than get them the hell out of polotics.
Showing posts with label supreme court. Show all posts
Showing posts with label supreme court. Show all posts
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Israel's Downfall
Today is the day I recognized that Israel is doomed. Iran and Hamas and all the other haters should just sit back and let Israel implode. Many argue that Israel survives because she faces existential threats. The protests in Immanuel today are the writing on the wall for the fate of Israel.
Let's recap: (please correct any errors, I don't claim to be perfect, just generally clever)
The Israeli public school system is divided into 3 tracks. Orthodox Jews, Secular Jews and Arabs. There are also private schools which operate independently from the ministry of education's public schools.
In the town of Immanuel there is a public school for orthodox Jewish girls. Many ashkenazi (jews from european/white heritage) who are parents in the school do not want their children to attend classes with sephardi girls (jews from spanish/middle eastern/dark skinned heritage).
The school decided to separate the dark from the light. The supreme court said no you don't. The white parents said, well we're not sending our kids to school with darkies.
After a few months went by and the court was ignored, the court gave a group of parents 2 weeks to integrate or go to prison. And today, over 100,000 orthodox Jews, protested in Israel, for the right to segregate the public school system based on race.
Just because a country exists on a map, does not mean it is surviving. After the fall of Rome, there were countries in the hinterlands, that for hundreds of years later still thought they were part of the Roman Empire. Israel does not have the luxury of allowing a theocracy to take over. When a significant segment of the population claims that the courts have no authority over them, and that their version of god is more important than the legal authority in a public school, that is a problem. When that group holds mass protests in the streets, with the support of mainstream politicians and significant rabbinical leaders, that is the writing on the wall.
Let's recap: (please correct any errors, I don't claim to be perfect, just generally clever)
The Israeli public school system is divided into 3 tracks. Orthodox Jews, Secular Jews and Arabs. There are also private schools which operate independently from the ministry of education's public schools.
In the town of Immanuel there is a public school for orthodox Jewish girls. Many ashkenazi (jews from european/white heritage) who are parents in the school do not want their children to attend classes with sephardi girls (jews from spanish/middle eastern/dark skinned heritage).
The school decided to separate the dark from the light. The supreme court said no you don't. The white parents said, well we're not sending our kids to school with darkies.
After a few months went by and the court was ignored, the court gave a group of parents 2 weeks to integrate or go to prison. And today, over 100,000 orthodox Jews, protested in Israel, for the right to segregate the public school system based on race.
Just because a country exists on a map, does not mean it is surviving. After the fall of Rome, there were countries in the hinterlands, that for hundreds of years later still thought they were part of the Roman Empire. Israel does not have the luxury of allowing a theocracy to take over. When a significant segment of the population claims that the courts have no authority over them, and that their version of god is more important than the legal authority in a public school, that is a problem. When that group holds mass protests in the streets, with the support of mainstream politicians and significant rabbinical leaders, that is the writing on the wall.
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