Progressives Fight Back
In reaction to public disgust with the predatory and monopolistic behavior of these corporate giants, the "Progressive Era" of Teddy Roosevelt's presidency (1901-1909) saw numerous laws passed designed to restrain bad corporate behavior. The most well-known was the 1907 Tillman Act, which made it a felony for a corporation to give money to federal politicians' campaigns.
The Tillman Act was based, in part, on numerous state laws, like this one that Wisconsin passed in 1905 (and was taken off the books in 1954):
"Political contributions by corporations. No corporation doing business in this state shall pay or contribute, or offer consent or agree to pay or contribute, directly or indirectly, any money, property, free service of its officers or employees or thing of value to any political party, organization, committee or individual for any political purpose whatsoever, or for the purpose of influencing legislation of any kind, or to promote or defeat the candidacy of any person for nomination, appointment or election to any political office. [Wis. Laws, Section 4479a (Sec. I, ch. 492, 1905)]" (emphasis added)
The penalty for an individual (even a lawyer or lobbyist representing a corporation) breaking this law on behalf of a corporation was not just a large fine but a two-year prison term, and if the corporation itself was found to be violating the law, it faced the corporate death penalty: "dissolution of the corporation and sale of its assets."
But 1921 saw the end of all that, when Republican Warren G. Harding successfully ran for president on a platform of tax cuts, deregulation and privatization. His twin slogans were, "More business in government [privatize], less government in business [deregulate]," and "Return to normalcy" (take taxes back down to where they were before World War I).
When elected, he lowered the top tax rate from 91 percent to 25 percent, producing a huge "sugar high" for the economy. It kicked off the Roaring '20s and led straight to the Great Crash of 1929, which was made much worse by Harding's successful deregulation of the banks and brokerage houses.
Between the 1920s and the 1980s, all U.S. states amended their constitutions or changed their laws to make it easier for large corporations to do business without having to answer to the citizens of the state, without size limits, and with infinite lifespans.
Today, every state still has laws that allow it to impose the corporate death penalty; it's just been decades since they've been used against a large corporation. (Small companies are routinely shut down by Secretaries of State, sometimes for malfeasance but mostly just because they've become inactive or failed to pay their taxes.)
Corporations have successfully argued before the Supreme Court that they should have First Amendment rights of free speech, Fourth Amendment rights of privacy, Fifth Amendment protections against takings, and Fourteenth Amendment rights as "persons" to "equal protection (with you and me) under the law," among other "rights of person-hood."
It's long past the time that these "persons," when they become egregious and recidivist criminals (and particularly when they repeatedly kill people), be treated the same as human criminals: remove them from society permanently.
New, smaller, more innovative companies can fill the spaces now occupied by bloated corporate criminals. The result will be (as it was after AT&T was broken up in the 1970s for violating anti-monopoly laws) an explosion of innovation, competition, and opportunity.
If enough corporate criminals are targeted, the American business renaissance could spread across industries including media, pharmaceuticals, airlines, tech, banking, insurance, food, chemicals, oil and beyond.
It would be a real stimulus, meaningful and long-lasting, as opposed to Trump's tax-cut heroin.
It's time for our states to start enforcing the corporate death penalty.
This article was produced by the Independent Media Institute.
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