The Paradox of Corporate Personhood: Profits Over Principles

Mitt Romney's statement during a town hall, "Corporations are people, my friend," echoes a longstanding legal perspective stemming from a Supreme Court decision over a century ago that granted corporations the rights of personhood. This notion presents a profound societal contradiction.

Unlike humans, for-profit corporations inherently lack morality. Their single-minded focus is to maximize shareholder profit, often at the expense of ethical considerations. Consequently, a corporation does not inherently feel obliged to act morally, as would be expected of an individual.

For example, if a corporation's factory is causing harm to its neighbors, the entity is not compelled to alleviate those harms unless doing so would benefit its financial interests. This behavior parallels that of an amoral individual—one who lacks a moral framework and is indifferent to concepts of right and wrong. Such entities, devoid of ethical considerations, struggle to act responsibly within society.

This stark reality challenges us to reconsider the implications of corporate personhood, questioning whether entities driven by profit can truly fulfill the responsibilities of a moral person in our society.