Kerry, how do you reconcile the historical roots of corporations in this country with their current status?

By roots I mean the relationship between corporations and American colonists between 1607 and 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed. And let’s not forget, that the father of capitalism, Adam Smith, published the Wealth of Nations in 1776.

How do you reconcile…

1809 An opinion of the Virginia Supreme Court stated that a charter should not be granted if the applicant’s “object is merely private or selfish; if it is detrimental to, or not promotive of, the public good.”

1816, when Thomas Jefferson wrote “I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

1822, when Massachusetts passed a law that read, “Every person who shall become a member of any manufacturing company … shall be liable, in his individual capacity, for all debts contracted during the time of his continuing a member of such corporation.”

Charter revocation actions brought by state attorneys general were once commonplace, for example:

1832, the Pennsylvania legislature revoked the charters of ten banks.

1839 to 1849 the Ohio legislature dissolved several corporations, including turnpikes, banks, and insurance corporations.

I mean no disrespect to your ideas. I am merely trying to understand why you disagree with colonists who fought corporate power for freedom. For example, the Boston Tea Party was an attempt to block the East India Company [a British corporation] from monopolizing American commodities markets, starting with tea. Do you believe the Boston Tea Party protest was wrong, misguided, regrettable? Perhaps you think America would have been better off, under corporate control.

While Americans maintained colonial era thinking and morals embedded in the idea of “corporations” and “colonialism”, I think we proved that a capitalist society had no need of corporations. In fact, it’s the other way around. The survival of corporations depends, entirely, on a functioning capitalist society.