Introduction
Corporations all over the world have characteristics of human beings. They operate in such a way that they can borrow money and pay debts just like people can do. But they cannot walk as a man or woman does. The paper would discuss the corporation as a person.
The First Response
The company is an organization that has a name just as a person. The government registers every person born in the country as a citizen. It also records every person who enters the country as either a visitor or a citizen. A visitor can be a tourist, an immigrant, or a guest of the state. Corporations, once registered, can open branches in other nations or even advertise their products in those countries. But they have to pay some levies to have permission to operate there.
The laws define and describe how a corporation should act. Within the legal system, it may have structures that adhere to the legislation of the land. It can also involve two people who come together with a view of strengthening a relationship that operates in a business manner. In means that it has personal power, duties, responsibilities, and liabilities. A group of people can also come together and legally align together to work towards a common purpose. After registering the firm, it acts like a person to conduct legal business. The corporation then raises funds as a person to increase its capital and conduct its activities.
Another characteristic that makes an organization behave like a person is that it holds meetings. The conference of the shareholders, the top management, and staff are meant to propagate the firm’s progress. It also hires the board of directors, the senior managers, and the workers. After doing their work, it pays them. As a person, it obeys the law by holding Annual General Meetings and observing its conduct. When it fails to honor its responsibility to the suppliers, staff, customers, and other stakeholders, they can sue it for damages.
It accepts court summons by hiring a legal representative. Just like some people do not make a profit from their work, so some organizations do not make the profit. Religious organizations, charity groups, and public schools only exist to serve the interests of society. Legally, they are not supposed to make the profit from their charitable work.
When an organization goes under, it is said to have died. When it increases its profit, it is said to be growing. When it does not observe its Corporate Social Responsibility, people see it as a failure for not honoring the humanity standards.
Therefore, in conclusion, the first colleague’s arguments and views are welcome but with caution. If the corporation becomes so powerful legally that it supersedes a person’s rights, it becomes a danger to humanity. There is a tendency to abuse human rights.
The Second Response
But the movie mainly points to the downside of the corporation. The firm uses the 14th amendment to prove its humanity. However, it does not have enough proof to validate its impact as a person. In fact, if one goes by the courts’ records, there are more cases unresolved about the person of the corporation. The movie indicates that a business comprises of a group of individuals. They combine their efforts to make an organization a unit that thrives for a particular purpose.
The organization, as an individual, may not do things on its own. It is the people within the organization who work hard to ensure that it becomes productive. The people come together to form a corporation that becomes legally binding. For the group to produce, the shareholders have to raise the desired capital. In fact, it is the lower level staff that provides the organization with the energy to become successful in its endeavor.
The behaviors in the people manifest into the organization’s core values. The way people do things in a corporation makes it gain a particular tag in the form of a name or label or a characteristic. The differences among the people working under the organization make it antisocial. It is unable to show empathy as a person. It does not concern itself with the feeling of others.
When the company goes to court, it is the management that hires professional legal experts to represent it. Therefore, the corporation, as a person, has to rely on human support to thrive. The firm cannot become guilty as an individual in the court of law. It is the people’s activities within the enterprise that face charges and have to pay fines. The law must make the organization to protect the rights of the people within it. It is because the same law makes the firm a person. Therefore, human beings must first benefit from the requirements of the law before the corporation does.
As an acknowledgment response to the other colleague, an organization cannot replace a person. It may be operating in the sense that it behaves like one, but it has odd characteristics. Therefore, it has the distinct features that can make it look superhuman. But it cannot become human.
If the society did not have laws, corporations could not have been born. It is the law that makes people form legally binding groups. They give it durable powers to operate as a person.