Are You Related To A Corporation?

       I'd like to tell you about a very distant relative of mine by the name of General Electric, or as we in the family call him, Gen. Gen is something of an extraordinary person for a distant relative. I say that because most, if not all of my close relatives vote regularly and pay taxes every year and at the standard rate for their income group. Not so with cousin, twice removed, Gen and all his friends.
       Ya see, Gen isn't allowed to vote and it's certainly not because of his age, he just never got the right to vote. And usually he doesn't pay taxes, in fact he quite often gets a refund from the government that can amount to nearly 75% of his net income. He has his own business in which he employs thousands upon thousands of employees, and nearly all of them pay taxes.
       The thing is Gen is a corporation. Now almost any person can incorporate themselves, but with Gen, he actually is a corporation. He's not a living breathing human person, he's a Supreme Court appointed person. Corporations are like that, ya know. Now I'm sure there was some obscure reason for making the claim that corporations are people, probably for tax purposes. But think about it. Corporations seem to get the rights of actual people without any of the disadvantages of real people.
       You never heard of a corporation being rushed to the hospital for an attack of appendicitis, did you? No, and you never heard of a corporation like General Electric going out for diner either. Gen's CEO probably goes out quite often and on the corporate's plastic to boot. Something else Gen can do that the rest of us can't. He can call up just about any member of Congress or even the President and ask for a sit down, and get it, to discuss some piece of legislation he likes or dislikes. And the thing is, he's more than likely to get what he wants because he spends a whole bunch of money on elections and campaigning.
       And there's the rub. Corporations get to write legislation and bring extreme pressure on Congress to do their bidding, unlike you or I who have a hard time getting to speak to a staffer. So if some piece of legislation is gonna harm you, forget about getting it defeated if it will help a corporation in the slightest way. Maybe something should be done about that.