> The corporation as a person theme is also
> misconceived.
I think you are confusing two different things. I, at least, was not so much referring to limited liabilty as I was to the "corporation-as-person" concept, which is from a series of US Supreme Court decisions that gave civil rights to corporations as though they were actual persons. Thus, corporations now have the right to free speech, the right to due process, etc. This is what I find so offensive about the legal status of corps.
This situation only gets worse when you pile on the limited liability and the exemptions from regulations that apply to you and me. For instance, General Electric is a convicted felon. They were tried and/or plead guilty to stealing from the Pentagon. Convicted felons are barred by law from holding broadcast licenses from the FCC. If I robbed a bank and was caught and convicted, I assure you, the FCC would not give me a license. GE, still has many broadcast licenses and has never seriously entertained taking them away.
> The implication is that
> limited liability is some kind of unique
> shield for capital. But obvious the owners
> of unincorporated business firms, of which
> there are many, also have ways of evading
> liability. Moreover, corporate capital is
> taxed more heavily than unincorporated,
> so limited liability is not free.
> MBS
--
Joseph Noonan jfn1 at msc.com