Should Corporations be People?

Short answer: Maybe

What I think & Why

Well certainly corporations are made up of people and people should have a voice. So shouldn't corporations have a voice? I think maybe there is room for corporations to have a voice.

But in what capacity?

Let's take everyone's favorite. Lobbying.

So the companies board probably has an idea of what they want to lobby for. But as someone who works in this corporation do I want that to happen? I think I should have a say because I may not want the same thing as the board. Why does all the money have to go to the same idea? Corporations are collectives of thousands of people and no thousand people are ever going to agree. Why should all this money go to something I don't even agree with. Yeah it's good for the company, but is it right by my ethical standard?

Could everyone in a corporation be given a voice?

Just for example sake, could a max of $1000 per person go to lobbying? As a person in the corporation I get to choose how that $1000 is allocated on a variety of positions expressed in the company. At least this gives me more power as an individual and gives me a way to have more influence over what I believe the government should be doing. This hopefully also limits a corporations power to control the government and thus the direction of society. Maybe it also has influence on the corporations behavior, without profit being the sole motivation. Of course the market will hate that. At least there will still be competition.

Really this is giving people a voice and a platform though through a corporation.

At this point is it even the corporation as a person, or a surrogate for a group of people? It's like the corporation has it's own democratic government in a way.

What about Small Business?

This is a great point and I think the example above is extremly naive. If something like this were to happen it would be for entire reform and I have some ideas but not answers. Answers come from a large group of people

Problems?

Yeah probably tons of problems with the arguments above. I don't know anything about this in reality, just expressing an opinion. Please tell me how I am wrong or why it won't work. I think these are the things that help to breed better ideas. Suggest your own solutions too :)

Please reach out to me if you found a problem, or how this could be built upon. Everything is just an idea being tossed around