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Originally Posted by troutman
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Yes, the comparison to a psychopath is apt. We all know people who treat everyone around them like absolute trash or worse, and seem to be able to get away with it as if they are immune to accountability to agreed upon rules or concern for other humans.
If corporations were people, this is the kind of person they would be. The law does not have anything to do with morality, it merely works to apply what has been written, and then strives to keep up with all the ways people test the limits of what has been written. Justice is not a morally qualified idea, it is only the application of the law as it exists. If the society is morally bankrupt, they will produce law that reflects their values. Simple as.
What is a confusing thing to me about the corporation is a person, though, is how the treatment stops short.
A corporation is a person, but you still need directors and officers to assume liabilities that can end up following them as individuals even after resignations. Why does that happen? The corporation is a person, aren't they? Shouldn't Mr or Mrs or Zir Corp put on their big person pants and deal with the messes they make?
I get that it is a simplifying reduction that makes the system itself function with slightly less friction, but it produces way too many undesirable effects for society.
The only ways I know how to deal with narcissists and psychopaths in my personal life is to avoid associating with them, or violence. "The Law" does not have the option of not associating with these people, they do have the monopoly on violence and apply it sparingly.
What other alternatives are possible?
I imagine it would require a reframing of what is important at minimum.
Defence of property rights and their associated rules around debt vs equity priorities is all anyone seems to actually care about. No wonder we have ended up with a low-trust, low-accountability, self-centred society that actively discounts the value of the future. Could that change by elevating the value of the future, or ensuring that to qualify as a person under the rules of law you must also be able to demonstrate a sense of duty and concern towards others?
I also imagine things will be very different if we did not have to work within the limits set by the invention of nation-states and their fiat currencies. Yet again... what are the alternatives?