But it's not enough that corporations get to set the legislative agenda so that commonsense solutions are never debated on the merits while senators go round and round about absurdities like cap and trade--now the corporations want to have the loudest voice in who gets elected. Keep in mind that just about every big company out there, in every industry, gets some kind of subsidy or favor from the federal government already and it's mostly at the expense of middle-class taxpayers and small entrepreneurs. The owners of these companies don't think much about the public interest or bettering the world, and, by the Milton Friedman way of thinking, they should have no other goal than maximizing profits for shareholders. So no corporation will act politically unless it serves the bottom line, and that means supporting politicians who share corporate goals. So the government will be in the business of maximizing profits. But that's not the government's job. The government's job is to act in the best interests of society, and sometimes that means profit-making has to take a backseat, which is something the officer of a corporation cannot abide.
The problem with treating a corporation like a person is that corporations have one motive, while people have many. A corporation can't love or pursue its whimsies. A corporation won't sacrifice itself to save the life of a stranger. A corporation is agnostic about forms of government and human rights if the ruling family of Saudi Arabia has oil to sell but it suddenly develops the appearance of a conscientious objection if it thinks that Hugo Chavez will nationalize its Venezuelan assets.
In the shorthand that defines American political debate, the government is equated with power and control, while business and enterprise are forces of freedom. But corporations are not instruments of freedom. They're tools of social organization that are usually undemocratic and that often manage to be anti-meritocracies and inegalitarian at the same time. Ultimately the corporation seeks to perpetuate itself for the benefit of its managers and it's up to forces from outside the corporation (competitors, customers, shareholders and, yes, government) to make sure that those self-serving ends don't consume us all.
More:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/25/corporations-china-business-economics-opinions-columnists-michael-maiello.html:kick:
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