WHAT IS A CORPORATION?
 

a quote from Michael Tellinger
WHAT IS A CORPORATION?

It is an idea that was written down on paper and a bunch of people run around to enact the idea and the rules set out on that piece of paper. Corporations do not breath, they do not bleed, they do not have emotions and cannot show infinite love – only people can do that.

When the 14th Amendment was passed in the USA during 1868, an era of tyranny was unleashed. This tyranny was subtle, relentless and deadly. It appeared in the form of The Corporation. Ironically, the 14th Amendment itself was not intended to cause this tyranny. It was during a connected case shortly after it was signed, that a court reporter incorrectly recorded that a decision had been made regarding the legal status of a Corporation. From that day forth, despite the fact that no such decision had actually been made, a corporation was given the same rights as you and me. This detonated the nightmare that we are stuck with today.

As of 1868, a Corporation was to be treated exactly like a real human being. In fact, the legal term for it is an “artificial person”. But because he? she? it? has no morals, it cannot die and has no cells or living tissue, a Corporation will continue to expand forever. Human beings, referred to as “consumers” continually feed this monster, nurture it and watch as it sucks the life out of everything it comes into contact with. It devours resources with no accountability and serves one purpose and one purpose only:to maximize financial profit.

And yet our laws uphold the rights of corporations – pieces of paper – more than they uphold the rights of living breathing human beings. Corporations are considered “persons” just like we are. The only difference is that we almost always sign contracts with them. They seldom, if ever, sign contracts with us. This places us in the position of having to do the delivering, the working, the paying and repeatedly subjugating our rights in their favour.

The tragedy is that most of these laws are written and enacted by other human beings who have no idea what they are doing. Slaves being enslaved because that is all they know. The words of a wise prophet come to mind at this moment: “Forgive them for they know not what they do.”

If ever there was a great injustice perpetrated against all of humanity, this is it. And we have no idea that this unlawful activity has been going on for thousands of years.

The brutally inhumane practice of slavery, and the slave trade, especially in the past 500 years, is a sobering reminder of how corporations held infinitely more sway with the law than the human beings who were traded as property or chattel by those slave-trading corporations.

Slave traders were often noblemen of high standing in their societies. Many of them became incredibly wealthy and politically powerful because of their trading in human misery. This is unthinkable to most of us today. And yet, that is exactly what each one of us has become. An ignorant slave to the corporation or so-called country that we are born into – without realizing it.

The saddest part of this deception is that many of us slaves are so brainwashed by our slave masters and their system that we are prepared to defend the system and even die for it. So let me remind you of these two historic statements:

“None are more enslaved than those who believe they are free”. Goethe

Morpheus: “The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.” Matrix – The movie

So, you don't like corporations then??

Matrix fanboy???

Want of material goods only brings unhappiness
`Dalai Lama

:der:

And you don't like sugar. Let him have his fun :)

"Corporations are people my friend" - Mitt Romney 2012

The US supreme court has ruled it.....

Does anyone know of a corporation that can help me with my iMessages? They appear to be acting wonky lately, and the US is currently SHUT DOWN because their Congress is trying to repeal AppleCare.. I don't know what to do, help!

Corporations are owned by people and operated and managed by people. If you have a concern you should look at the people running them and the company directors and blame them.

Too much reef glue sniffing...

a cut and paste from a conspiracy theorist?

copy paste this:

The saddest part of this is that many of us slaves are so brainwashed by our slave masters and their system that we are prepared to defend the system and even die for it.

“None are more enslaved than those who believe they are free”. Goethe

Ok Neo, which pill did you take this morning, red or blue...?

he forgot to take his meds I think :mrgreen:

RuGlu6, just curious, what do you do for a living?

corporations and "the man" are keeping us down... so I threw it on the ground!

http://youtu.be/gAYL5H46QnQ

My guess is RU is an employee of a corporation.
They really need to teach more business basics in school.
The assumptions some of my past employees have made about businesses are sad.
We live in a capitalist society. Deal with it.


:smile:

You hit the nail right on the head, friend !
Humans are the only creatures that have to pay for living on this planet.
That is why most of us are just slaves.:mrgreen:

Why be a slave? Strip done to nothing, head out the front door and make your way to the woods to live with the animals. Thats gotta be better option.

You didn't answer my question, which is what do YOU do for a living? Just trying to understand you better, and where you are coming from...

Not sure what your definition of slaves is. But might possibly mean that humans, and all life are slaves to something. Even bacteria are dependent on something to live and reproduce, or they die...

Difference with humans is that they learned that working together can be more productive and safe, and make for a better life.

That's actually a very good point about having to pay to live on earth. I suppose that's the price for becoming civilized. I'm not very good with a bow or a club so I'll stick with my slave masters.

Also, corporations run the internet that we are all using to spread the word about our corporate oppressors.

I'm thinking it's about time that my dog and fish start to pull their weight around this joint... freaking freeloaders...

:mrgreen::lol:

Snerk.

:pop2:

I completely disagree to this. Every living thing in this world "pay" to live. Different beings pay differently. For us, its money. For fishes, one pay with his/her life to save the rest. For corals, they pay by not been able to move. Starfishes pay by leaving parts of their bodies. For tigers, they pay by waiting for the next meal.

In the end, EVERYTHING pays. We happen to pay with pieces of papers (and being from a 3rd world country, that doesn't always work too, sometimes lives are also used as a form of payment).

And to the term "slave" that you used, you can't choose yourself to be a "slave". And there's always the option of being free (or to layman's term, live what you love and go to the wild where you don't have to...umm...PAY).

I'm feeling this dude... ;) I got your back haha.

There is a good documentary called "The Corporation". In the film they make the case that If a corporation was a human being, that human being would be the dictionary definition of a psychopath. The film makes a lot of good points but is kinda long and dragged out. In the end it clearly shows that the system is heavily flawed (corps have obviously done a lot to further mankind but there are always down sides). What is the solution? Corporate money in politics is not right IMO. In the states its unlimited.....the corporations and special interest groups practically run the government.

One cool alternative to a corporation is a co-op. There are worker co-ops, were the workers share ownership and member co-ops. MEC is an awesome example of a member co-op. Very cool to read about..

http://www.mec.ca/AST/ContentPrimary.../MECShares.jsp

http://www.mec.ca/AST/ContentPrimary...p/CoOpFaqs.jsp

Not to imply that is a complete solution. I do think the way the system today is is messed up though....think about how big corporations have got in the last 50 years. Everyone shops at the name brand corporation.

Scary fact: The 6 Walton (Walmart) family members are now worth 93 billion. They are richer than the bottom 30% (108 million) of Americans.

In the context of the original post "pay" was used to refer to money and the monetary system...not something physical. Tomato, potato.

My point is every living thing has to pay one way or the other with something, its not just us humans. Its in the whole eco system.

Co-ops (incl credit unions) are just another type of corporation. Here is how our CRA looks at it.
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tp...s/thr-eng.html

They are given certain benefits, like tax breaks, for being non-profit. I actually belong to one, and buy almost all my fuel from them.

But the downside is that usually they lack the expertise, sophistication and motivation to compete with their for profit cousins. And they don't contribute much (in taxes) to pay for our education, health care, social services etc, like individuals and for profit corporations do.

The old Soviet Union essentially operated like a bunch of giant cooperatives, except their "members" didn't always have a lot of say in how they were operated.

Yes everything that can feel pain will and every living thing will die one day. No other living thing will pay with money.... That logic is sound, but I don't necessarily think the way he put it was good though.

Do you know that roughly 25,000 people day of starvation. While we all went about our day today 18,000 kids starved to death. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/...n-hunger_x.htm

You know what would stop those people from starving.....MONEY. (yes, or a way to provide for themselves but in our society that means money).

I never said a society filled with co-ops is the answer....although it may be part of one. Stiffer regulation, corporate money out of politics, that would help.

Look Im not down playing the important role corporation have had in the past and present but they are larger than ever and more powerful than ever. They only have one purpose and that is to make money at all costs. If the idea of breaking the law and getting caught is less costly (in dollar terms) they do it.

And as far as paying taxes.....many of the largest US business such as GE paid no corporate income taxes last year.

Yeah, problem in the US is that they get too many tax breaks there, corps and individuals, and they have got even smarter with avoiding them.

It's quite different in Canada where corps pay through the nose (despite our lower marginal rates), at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. The only way (almost) to escape tax here is to lose money.

In the US, there is a major industry (big accounting firms) that advises corps on how to avoid taxes. They really, really need to rewrite their tax code. Even ours here in Canada could use some work.

Thanks for understanding :D That was my point, everything has to pay.

I am aware of huge number of people starving to death (hence the 3rd world and paying with lives comparison) but wasn't aware of the statistics. Thanks for the info :)

Ya you're right, it's bought and payed for. They're not all bad though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lGG_FE78uA
Enjoy!

:drinking: dude have another one. talk about DEEP THOUGHTS ROLMAO

That's not what their audited financial statements say.

http://www.ge.com/sites/default/file...g-Segments.pdf

Not quite true, American corps do seem to have more loopholes, but there is just as big an industry here in Canada working hard to make sure Canadian corp's can utilise as many tax advantages as possible. CRA is pretty quick to close ones that provide an unfair advantage, but many of these "loopholes" are designed as an instrument of policy rather than an unintentional "we forgot to cover that base" kind of loophole. For example, many profitable business get extensive tax credits because the government wants to promote certain industries or provide a break to small business owners, etc.

If you want to shine a light on an industry, look at agriculture. Most corporations I know would kill to get the kind of tax breaks that farms do.

As has been mentioned up-thread, a corporations behaviour is dictated by the ethics of its shareholders. Management answers to shareholders and if the shareholders are tolerating/encouraging unethical behaviour than there is the problem. If you took away the corporate structure, those same unethical people would simply find a different mechanism to make their money.

Im gonna assume that is for GE as a whole and not just the US operations and US corporate income tax. What large multinational corps often do is off load expenses to the countries with high tax rates for deductions and keep the revenues overseas where taxes are often lower.

As far as it not being true....IDK, some pretty reputable sources say otherwise.

http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post...3-2949588e90f6

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_2852094.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/bu...pagewanted=all

After researching it seems it hasn't been proven but GE did not release anything proving otherwise which tells me it's either true or they paid very little anyway.

An interesting fact in the first article... "Now, the Times reports, only 6.6% of Uncle Sam's tax revenue comes from corporations (down from 30% in the 1950s)."

Not saying there's not a problem with the way the US taxes its businesses and citizens but a lot of what you read is a lot of speculation, usually by people not very sophisticated in how these things are accounted for.

Without going into a lot of boring detail, relevant accounting regulations (IFRS and US GAAP) disallow the kind of reporting you're talking about; earning revenue/expense in one nation and reporting it another with better tax rates, it's just not allowed. Public companies are also required to have their financial statements audited as a condition of being listed on their respective exchanges (NYSE, TSX, etc.). This means an independent accounting firm tests the financial statements to ensure that they are following the rules and not misrepresenting themselves to shareholders and other stakeholders. If a firms statements are audited and the audit opinion is unqualified, it's a pretty safe bet the statements are fairly presented; that includes taxes paid and where the revenues came from.

Again, not saying they don't spend a lot of money finding programs and credits that minimize their tax expense, but there's a big difference between illegally misrepresenting financial information and finding legal ways to reduce your tax burden.

As far as ethics, if I called you up and offered you my services as an accountant so I could reduce the amount of tax you'd pay, would you say not a chance, I'd LOVE to pay more? Didn't think so, so if it's ok for an individual to actively engage in tax planning, why is it unethical for a corporation to do so (again assuming all tax planning done is above board and maximising legal programs).

Just a further note, those articles seem a little misleading to me. They refer to it as "holding profits overseas", which implies that GE earned the revenue in the US and then transferred the money to an offshore bank account.

What they are likely referring to in actuality is that GE's subsidiaries earned the money overseas from operations in other countries and rather than flowing the money up to the US parent corporation the subsidiary reinvests profits earned in Brazil, for example, back into their Brazilian operations.

I'm not implying they are doing anything illegal. That is the problem.

They have lots of ways to avoid taxation....

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwo...re-tax-scheme/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...tax-haven.html

Smaller corporations, businesses and the average man could only wish to have the knowledge and resources to reduce taxation at the level of these large multinational organizations.