What a hall of mirrors capitalism is. I always get dizzy thinking, for instance, about the concept banking, where two parties -- depositor and borrower -- have claim to the same money at the same time. In essence banks create money out of thin air.
The concept of the corporation is even murkier. Corporations are everywhere; they are nowhere. They are incorporated here; manufacture somewhere else; sell at a different locality; and pay taxes God knows where.
They are owned and operated in ways designed to limit and blur accountability..
Which brings us to taxation. I believe the argument against corporate taxation is essentially apiece with this view of the corporation as nonexistent being. You can't tax a corporation; it doesn't exist; instead, you're taxing the shareholders and consumers who make up the metaphysical construct of the corporation.
I would retort that corporations pack quite a whallop despite being nonexistent. And I think it useful to remind corporations of the sovereign will of the people from time to time by badgering them for taxes. This may be a purely symbolic, even counterproductive practice, but I believe it is never in the people's interest to pass up an opportunity to annoy the business community, however futile the action may ultimately be.
Carl
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