Stop mixing up corporations and humans

The UDHR (art. 17) says that “everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others”. And everybody is equal before the law, right? This idea is one of the unwritten bases of liberal capitalism. But it has a bug. And maybe this bug is the root of most problems of our generation.

The clause “as well as in association with others” is a pitfall. It makes us believe that an association of humans is like a human.

Association of humans (“corporation”) are called legal persons. Most legislations give them the right of owning things. That’s the implementation of article 17 of the UDHR.

Owning things implies trading with goods and services, entering into contract with others or introducing a law suit against them. In most countries of the world, corporations can do these things. They are like humans.

But they aren’t humans. They are just ideas, born out of human minds, registered in some public database, personified as legal persons.

They are immortal. They survive the lifetime of individual humans, and therefore can become incredibly powerful. And some of them are out of control and want to rule the world.

I like to consider corporations as spirits. A spirit is an idea that exists outside of a human brain.

There are two kinds of spirits: altruistic and greedy. Altruistic spirits are those who serve the common good, greedy spirits are those who serve a small group of individuals.

Individual humans deserve mercy, spirits don’t. A greedy spirit should not have a right to property. If we want peace on earth, we need to act without mercy against greedy giants.