Is a corporation a slave? Many philosophers think so
8 days ago
- #corporate slavery
- #legal personhood
- #worker cooperatives
- The term 'wage slave' reflects modern workers' feelings of enslavement to their organizations.
- Corporations like Microsoft, Google, and Tesla are 'legal persons' but can be owned as property, making them akin to slaves.
- Legal personhood of corporations is not just a legal fiction but reflects real group personalities, as argued by philosophers like Christian List and Philip Pettit.
- Group persons (corporations) have independent attitudes and psychology, capable of understanding concepts like right and wrong.
- For-profit corporations are owned by shareholders, traded as commodities, and forced to maximize profits, resembling the condition of slavery.
- Historical slave laws (e.g., Roman, Ancient Greek, medieval Islamic) recognized slaves as legal persons with limited liability, similar to modern corporations.
- Identifying corporations as slaves highlights moral issues, drives inequality, explains profit-maximizing behavior, and suggests solutions like worker cooperatives.
- Worker cooperatives (e.g., Mondragon, John Lewis Partnership) are unowned and prioritize worker wellbeing over profit maximization.