On Thu, 19 Jun 1997, DDeBar wrote:

> .
> snip>
> >  Corporations are logical consequences..of monoploy capitalism, which
> > engulfs and devours small enterprise, no matter how strongly those
> > enterprises products may be demanded.
>
> Point of fact - corporations existed as legal entities long before monoply
> capitalism did.
>
Well, not necessarily. Many early corporations (e.g. British East India
Company, Hudson Bay Company) exercised monopoly power, well before the
well-documented rise of monopoloy capital in the 1870's. Also, the fact
that corporations existed as legal entities isn't really the point--it's
the nature of those entities. Early in the republic, corporate charters
were granted by state legislatures in ways that strictly limited corporate
activity, requiring that corporations operate in the public interest, and
setting limits on profits, activities, and even the lifespan of a
particular corporation. All of this began to change in the 1870's, when a
series of legislative acts and court cases gave corporations the same
legal & constitutional rights as persons. It's from this point that most
of our modern problems stem. (David Korten, "When Corporations Rule the
World", Kumarian Press, Ch. 4). The question is not one of corporations
per se, but their ends, and who controls them.

"Corporations have been enthroned....An era of corruption in high places
will follow and money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working
on the prejudices of the people...until wealth is aggregated in a few
hands...and the Republic is destroyed"  -Abraham Lincoln