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Re:Bernie’s Army of Coders by gozur88 on Thursday February 18, 2016 @06:37PM (#11130307)
Corporations aren't people. They're groups of people.

Why is it I lose my right to speak if I'm in a group? In that respect, what makes corporations different from unions or advocacy groups like Greenpeace?

Re:Bernie’s Army of Coders by dragonwriter on Thursday February 18, 2016 @06:48PM (#11130385)
> Why is it I lose my right to speak if I'm in a group?

No one has suggested that you should. People have suggested that the corporation acting as such, including through its paid agents should not have the same rights as natural persons, acting alone or collectively, but that various classes of corporations should have constraints appropriate to their class.

One of the many reasons offered for this is that corporations are creations of government granted the use of the special form and legal fiction of personhood adn subsidized with various benefits with the purpose of achieving public benefit.

> In that respect, what makes corporations different from unions or advocacy groups like Greenpeace?

Unions and advocacy groups quite often are corporations. "Unions" and "advocacy groups" are descriptions of functions, "corporation" is a description of legal structure.

Re:Bernie’s Army of Coders by 13thLetter on Friday February 19, 2016 @04:08PM (#11136633)
> but that various classes of corporations should have constraints appropriate to their class.

Who will decide what class a corporation falls into?

I get the uneasy feeling that, practically speaking, corporations expressing certain approved political opinions or supporting approved political candidates will have the least constraints.

Re:Bernie’s Army of Coders by uxp on Thursday February 18, 2016 @06:46PM (#11130373)
You shouldn't lose your right to anything when you're in a group, but you shouldn't have more rights solely because you're in a group. The group should have rights, You should have rights, and everyone else should have rights. There's a distinction there.
Re:Bernie’s Army of Coders by gozur88 on Thursday February 18, 2016 @06:46PM (#11130382)
What rights do I have as part of a corporation that I don't have as an individual?
Re:Bernie’s Army of Coders by uxp on Thursday February 18, 2016 @07:17PM (#11130513)
You do not have any rights as part of a corporation that you do not already have as an individual. That is the distinction. The corporation has rights, of which you can enact on behalf of the corporation, that you cannot enact on your own. Limits on campaign contributions is one such right.

Because you carry in your wallet a card that declares you a member of a corporation, you are not granted any rights, personally.

Re:Bernie’s Army of Coders by bmelton on Thursday February 18, 2016 @08:29PM (#11130881)
I think you're radically mistaken on how corporate contributions work.

Near as I can find, corporations don't have carte blanche to give unlimited money to an individual campaign. In fact, corporations cannot give any money to an individual candidate's campaign.

Corporations can give money to Political Action Committees, but are limited by amount to the same as real people.

Corporations can give money to SuperPACs, but so can real people.

http://www.fec.gov/info/contriblimitschart1516.pdf

http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/citizens.shtml

If I am wrong, I welcome corrections, but I think you're off on what corporations can and cannot do.

Re:Bernie’s Army of Coders by specialist on Friday February 19, 2016 @06:50PM (#11137687)
you shouldn't have more rights solely because you're in a group.

So no more collective bargaining?