Thread: Tax Code Reform
View Single Post
304065 304065 is offline
Moderator
 
304065's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 9,569
Super, it does not advance the discussion to assert your opinion without at least SOME objectively referenceable data to support it. For example, if you think that the taxes that corporations pay are too low, tell us why based on something other than you think they are sociopathic.

Corporations are "legal persons" that cannot feel and the entire reason they exist within the taxonomy of entities is for profit maximization. Corporations, like limited liability entities such as LLCs, LLPs, GMBHs and the like, have the common characteristic that their members are not individually liable for the obligations of the corporate entity. These characteristics evolved over the last 500 years or so as a means to facilitate the limitation of RISK associated with a business venture: people are much less inclined to contribute $500 to a joint-stock company if when that company goes bankrupt their personal assets are at risk of loss.

Further, corporations are not in business to employ people or to necessarily improve the world. They exist for one reason only, and that is to maximize profits for their stakeholders. The law of corporations does not encourage them to consider "alternate constituencies" like the public, future generations, the environment, etc., except where the extent to which those things impact return to the stakeholders.

Now you will probably regard this taxonomical description of the corporation as playing right into your hands, but not so fast: those are its legal characteristics and there is no changing them. Do you weep for the small fish that are consumed by the shark, or does watching lions take down Gazelles on The Discovery Channel engender moral outrage? Do you shed a silent tear for the bovine cut down in the prime (pun intended) of its life and slathered in bernaise sauce to appease your prandial lust? If you do we got bigger problems, but the point is, that's the nature of the beast.

Billions of dollars a year are expended by corporations to comply with the myriad of legal regulations put in place precisely to rein in that profit-maximizing behavior to the extent that it is harmful to society. Wage and hour restrictions, work rules, environmental regs, tax compliance, securities laws, bank regulation, insurance regulation, accounting rules, etc., all exist to harness that profit-maximizing legal entity called the corporation and ensure that its natural tendencies are curbed. Which includes limitations on corporate donations to political campaigns and so-called "soft money."

Can you tell me, without using the word "sociopathic" or any other conclusory language, exactly how we should have both civilization and an economy without the use of the corporation? Please describe, in great detail, how we can approximate the same level of output using sole proprietorships, general partnerhips, or unincorporated associations. If you deny that we need civilization or an economy I suppose I can't argue with that, but you would then need to tell me how to feed everybody using the nomadic hunter-gatherer model. The last time I checked the theory of utilitarianism, that model didn't provide the greatest good or do it for the greatest number.

Or is it human nature that you have the problem with?
__________________
'66 911 #304065 Irischgruen
‘96 993 Carrera 2 Polarsilber
'81 R65
Ex-'71 911 PCA C-Stock Club Racer #806 (Sold 5/15/13)
Ex-'88 Carrera (Sold 3/29/02)
Ex-'91 Carrera 2 Cabriolet (Sold 8/20/04)
Ex-'89 944 Turbo S (Sold 8/21/20)
Old 04-16-2004, 02:32 PM
  Pelican Parts Catalog | Tech Articles | Promos & Specials    Reply With Quote #45 (permalink)