The Oil Drum

Hey folks, this post is, as I write, #55 on reddit. I just wanted to let you know in case you were inclined to go vote it up.

(and no, I don't know if that means we're back at reddit or not...)

Simply put, it means that "corporate personhood" must, by necessity, be redefined or, more accurately, more properly defined. The notion that a fictional entity may demand all of the rights and freedoms of a flesh and blood human being has been a one-sided concept since its inception in 1889.
"Juristic persons", as corporations are sometimes called, have been free to demand and enjoy these rights without shouldering any of the responsibilities.
Time and time again we are admonished that "freedom isn't free", or that "with freedom and liberty goes an awesome amount of responsibility", as if we the citizens have somehow been lackadaisical in our shirking of such dues.
I don't know if it will take a generation of "Schoolhouse Rock" television skits to teach the idea of giant multi-story "persons" weighing in the hundreds of thousands of tons, moving about the city, crushing anyone who gets in their way, feeding at the trough and littering the landscape with their economic waste and frivolity.
I'd like to think that the grownups can grasp the concept a little better, but so far all we hear are the howls of outrage as "fictional persons" scream about how their rights are being infringed whenever the people demand they show a little responsibility.
Apparently all that responsibility, and the economic burdens associated with it, are "for the little people".
It's time to start treating these entities as the objects that they truly are, or else force them to shoulder the same discipline and responsibilities that we the little people, are forced to carry.