There is this idea on DU (and it existed before the recent Supreme Court decision on corporate personhood) that "corporations" are evil, that "corporations" do this, that "corporations" do that, that "corporations" don't pay any taxes, and corporations etc. etc. etc. I don't know if this is just a convenient meme or what, but I honestly feel it has outlived its usefulness. As Alec Baldwin says when he's run out of arguments in the movie
Team America,
"The, the, ...global warming and... corporate America and..." What does this even mean anymore? The world and Americans have stopped paying attention to it because a corporation is just an entity that exists in our head. This is why no matter what people say about Wal-Mart, or Exxon Mobile, or any number of other "evil corporations," very little gets done in the way of progressive policies against these organizations.
The people BEHIND the corporation, the owners, decision-makers, and various stakeholders are what we should rail against. Why are we railing against so-called "corporations" when we can go after the rich people that actually make money off them? For instance, as DU'er
Nye Bevan pointed out regarding the corporate income tax, which is a oft-discussed issue here at DU:
"Corporations spend millions going through contortions to avoid it, and when they can't, they simply pass it on to their customers. This tax raises a comparatively small amount of revenue,
which could easily be recouped by raising the income tax rate on wealthy individuals (my emphasis). Abolishing corporation tax would also result in reduced unemployment as foreign companies would be more likely to open branches and factories in the US."
DaveinJapan has also started a great discussion on this
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8098230Personal opinion here, but I think we are wasting our time going after this boogeyman. People just don't care. Go after REAL PEOPLE.