Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became "People"

306372384

Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became \"eople\" - And How You Can Fight Back
By Thom Hartmann


  

Publisher:  Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Number Of Pages:  360
Publication Date:  2010-06-14
ISBN-10 / ASIN:  1605095591
ISBN-13 / EAN:  9781605095592


Product Description:



Was the Boston Tea Party the first WTO-style protest against transnational corporations? Did Supreme Court sell out America's citizens in the nineteenth century, with consequences lasting to this day? Is there a way for American citizens to recover democracy of, by, and for the people?

Thom Hartmann takes on these most difficult questions and tells a startling story that will forever change your understanding of American history. Amongst a deep historical context, Hartmann describes the history of the Fourteenth Amendment--created at the end of the Civil War to grant basic rights to freed slaves--and how it has been used by lawyers representing corporate interests to extend additional rights to businesses far more frequently than to freed slaves. Prior to 1886, corporations were referred to in U.S. law as \"artificial persons.\" But in 1886, after a series of cases brought by lawyers representing the expanding railroad interests, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations were \"persons\" and entitled to the same rights granted to people under the Bill of Rights. Since this ruling, America has lost the legal structures that allowed for people to control corporate behavior.

It's time for \"we, the people\" to take back our lives. In this revised and expanded second edition, Hartmann incorporates specific examples from today's headlines, and proposes specific legal remedies that could truly save the world from political, economic, and ecological disaster.




Summary: We the people are not corporations
Rating: 5

The American Colonies fought the revolution, largely, to free themselves from the economic tyranny of the East India Company. The Founding Fathers knew that
corporations amassed great wealth taken from the people. They warned against corporations ever again being allowed to regain control. Yet, they have, largely through the robber barons, the railroad men, who fraudulently applied the rights of the Constitution to corporations through a court decision incorrectly reported. We have to take these rights back ASAP, and this book gives us the historical background for this tragic error, and how exactly to correct the problem.

Please read this book. You will gain lots of insights and guidance. A great read. Thanks Thom for you good work.

tim



Summary: Small businesses take note: Corporate personhood hurts you as well
Rating: 5

Thom Hartmann has, once again, provided an informative, rational and readable view of our world, its problems and what to do about them. This time its an update of his previous work on the domination of large corporations by virtue of \"corporate personhood.\" He steps through the principles of the founders of our nation and then through Supreme Court decisions, or lack thereof, bringing history alive by quotes, photos and anecdotes about the people involved and why they acted as they did. He factually documents the negative impact corporate personhood has had on real persons and the society in which we live. Readers should sit up and take notice, however, that Hartmann reveals herein that it is not just ordinary humans who now have unequal protection under the law. Small and local businesses too have been trampled under the feet of the \"big boys\" of the economy. Those who advocate free market capitalism and who endorse corporate personhood often claim the purpose of helping small businesses or strengthening local economies. Just the opposite is the actual impact of these economic policies, as he clearly and amply demonstrates. Finally, he pulls in the comments of modern-day capitalists who have learned that removing the standing of corporations as persons under the law will not destroy big business either. In fact, in the long-run, it will ensure broad-based growth of the economy, as the capitalism without regulation that results from corporate personhood is not sustainable.

This can be the reference book for a new movement, a truly \"populist\" movement to place \"We, the People\" back in charge. Let's go for it! Yes, we need to return to the principles upon which our country was founded. Corporations are NOT people!



Summary: The history we did not learn in school
Rating: 5

Hartmann provides a perspective on the forces that led to the founding of the United States that is richer than the traditional views. As we look back over the history of the US, I would suspect that the Founding Fathers would not recognize the nation they set in motion. According to Hartmann, protection of the individual from the effectively limitless powers of non-human corporations was a keystone on which the Founding Fathers did agree, even if their recommended methods may have differed. Unfortunately, our fundamental lack of interest or understanding of American history has led to our inability to properly maintain the safeguards that provided those protections. Despite its problems, the uniqueness and the greatness of the American Experiment comes through loud and clear in this book, and it is a must read for anyone who wants to or needs to be reminded of that.



Summary: Unequal ... and alarming
Rating: 5

I saw Thomas Hartman being interviewed on CSPAN and, as always went right to Amazon to purchase it. The subject makes for very dry reading and I would rather be reading a novel. But, this is too important a subject to not be informed about. With the recent Supreme Court ruling favoring Corporations over personal rights, it is very topical. Thomas Hartman clearly lays out an historical time line and simply explains the earliest organizations of people for survival and finally commerce; the \"commons\" and how the \"commons\" has been misinterpreted over time. He shows the mental wrestling the US Founding Fathers had with their fear of the rise and dominance of \"Big Corporations\" , now realized, and the erosion of civil rights in favor of big business. It's worth a read.



Summary: 1886 Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad To Present
Rating: 5

Thom Hartmann's brilliantly plain spoken account reminiscing the history of corporate ' personhood' in the imfamous SCOTUS 1886 account : Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad , brings that thread into the present explaining how the general conditions of inequality between humans and the world of corporations has come to be extrapolating that they have received personhood through the said case . Consider that the modern corporation is not particularly subjected to equal penalties for criminal offences as you and I may be. Corporations hold sway over not only the decision making processes of our elected officials but even indirectly over us as well. For example; international laws enacted by the WTO essentially illegalize fair trade and national tariffs , allowing for production of goods be made at the lowest wage, cost and quality possible ,is considered 'doing a profitable business ' . Records of industrial by-products and emmisions are legally protected from scrutiny . This of course is what we see happening now with the commons being exploited while our unalienable right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness is being sytematically dismantled by relentless censorship , and restraints , the erosion of our peace . Motivated by selfish interests shareholder gains ad priori, does not reqiure a concern for the good of society be included in the equation. Hartmann in no way implies anti- Capitalism / Corporate views , a founder of more than a few himself , but rather due to the lack of prudence and oversight, rampant desires for profit outweigh common sense and just intent .
I highly recommend this book for it's ease of reading and clarification of an important stage in American history that has been blurred and watered down by the predominantly manipulated sources of media we've come to rely on for real information . That once proud estate has failed so miserably in the task of reporting the news, not holding high the banner of dedication and honor the 1st Amendment deserves in principle that a free press = an informed citizenry.
Kudos Tom Hartmann , a person deeply concerned for the welfare of this country and his fellow man, just as the Founders had intended it to be.

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