I Croak Therefore I Am

The Boiling Frog

In 2011, then presidential candidate Mitt Romney famously remarked “corporations are people, my friend” when confronted by hecklers at the Iowa State Fair. He was mocked and derided in many circles for this comment, which seemed to represent a politician blinded by his own corporate experience and success. But Romney was at least partially correct. in order to understand why we have corporate personhood, as well as to analyze what limits it should or should not have, one must examine both the nature of the corporation itself as well as the history of rights granted to these “fictional” entities. This podcast gives a brief history of the corporation and an overview of its various forms, at least in the U.S., and discusses the challenges our recent expansion of corporate rights has created.