New ‘social purpose corporation’ designation allows for-profit firms to incorporate social and envir

[eridani]

http://seattlebusinessmag.com/article/commentary-putting-good-work

When Governor Chris Gregoire signed HB 2239 on March 31, she effectively created the first alternative for-profit corporate form in Washington state’s history: the social purpose corporation (SPC), a for-profit entity that can be chartered to create social and environmental good. It was the culmination of two years of concentrated deliberation and effort by the Corporate Act Revision Committee, a 13-person group of corporate attorneys.

Traditional corporations are expected to prioritize the creation of shareholder profits above other considerations, such as employee benefits, environmental care or community impact. By establishing social purpose corporations, Washington state is signaling that companies should have the flexibility to make decisions based on the effects the company has on all stakeholders, that is, any person or entity affected by the corporation’s decisions. Because the legislation is permissive, not proscriptive, SPCs are required to create general social benefit but are not told what that has to be or how to achieve it. This designation distinguishes the SPC from a similar for-good/for-profit structure called the benefit corporation—a popular structure that has been adopted or is pending in 15 states.

[99th_Monkey]

1. Ironic, because this was the ORIGINAL deal, back in the day

when corporations first started being created, the laws to do so included these
kinds of provisions, to provide some socially beneficial amenities and influences.

Somewhere along the line, these provisions were dropped or ignored. From
Wiki:

"The chartering of benefit corporations is an attempt to reclaim the original purpose for which corporations were chartered in early America. Then, states chartered corporations to achieve a specific public purpose, such as building bridges or roads. Their legitimacy stemmed from their delegated charter, although they could still earn profits while fulfilling it.

Over time, however, corporations came to be chartered without any public purpose, while their purpose degraded to one of being legally bound to the singular purpose of profit-maximization for its shareholders. Advocates of benefit corporations assert that this singular focus has resulted in a variety of societal ills, including the thwarting of democracy, diminished social good, and negative environmental impacts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefit_corporation

[eridani]

2. Very good point. But then back in the 1890s--

--that corporate personhood thing got through, and then Henry Ford lost the suit shareholders brought against him for paying his workers too much.

[99th_Monkey]

3. Whoa! Who knew?

not me anyway. nice tidbit. thanks.

Our Invi$ible Overlord$ will apparently have no truck with
actually being human, or kind, or even rational.

[pscot]

4. It will be interesting to see how long it takes

for our corporate overlords to pervert this to their own nefarious purposes.