Thanks for info on Norfolk Southern. I was a middle manager for a multi-national corporation that also had a "Good Government Fund." They asked me to be a solicitor for this fund. It wasn't a high pressure campaign or anything, but you remind me that I'm glad I declined.
I know Shelby makes this kind of PAC opaque as to who the donators are, but is there any keeping track of whether the donations are a few very large amounts or a multitude of smaller ones? In other words, can a board set up one of these so that a few big shareholders can influence legislation no matter what the employees think?
"In other words, can a board set up one of these so that a few big shareholders can influence legislation no matter what the employees think?"
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Most public corporations and their respective boards are usually not that concerned about the opinions of the rank and file employees, they are mostly concerned with keeping the company profitable and the larger shareholders happy. Also, if the members of a Board of Directors, or a person within the party's donor class, want to make donations above what is allowed by law they will do it. It may be illegal but straw donors are out there waiting to be found and bought.
That is clearly true. The question is really whether there is a way to subvert Shelby by using the discrepancy between stated purpose and actual result more transparent for Good Government Fund.
For example, require shareholder funds to be separate from employee donated funds and require reporting of the what, if not the who, to be done separately. Not that many rank and file workers will care much but the more wedges to allow talking points, by such unions as they are or by candidates, the better.
The first thing you learn as you walk in the door of law school is that corporate "personhood" is a legal fiction. It is meant to put a legal entity in between the corporation and its owner/investors to reduce the risks that discourage investing at all . For small companies it works well. But the idea that the law uses the word "person"--- and therefore the corporation has free speech rights that let it spend unidentified money on politics---basically means that our political culture is dominated by fictional characters. No wonder the world of "alternative facts" is so each for some to accept. Alternative Facts are in fact the function of fiction.
About illegality we can do little as long as those prone to it control the rules.
Joe,
Thanks for info on Norfolk Southern. I was a middle manager for a multi-national corporation that also had a "Good Government Fund." They asked me to be a solicitor for this fund. It wasn't a high pressure campaign or anything, but you remind me that I'm glad I declined.
We have the best representatives that corporate money can buy.
I know Shelby makes this kind of PAC opaque as to who the donators are, but is there any keeping track of whether the donations are a few very large amounts or a multitude of smaller ones? In other words, can a board set up one of these so that a few big shareholders can influence legislation no matter what the employees think?
"In other words, can a board set up one of these so that a few big shareholders can influence legislation no matter what the employees think?"
-----
Most public corporations and their respective boards are usually not that concerned about the opinions of the rank and file employees, they are mostly concerned with keeping the company profitable and the larger shareholders happy. Also, if the members of a Board of Directors, or a person within the party's donor class, want to make donations above what is allowed by law they will do it. It may be illegal but straw donors are out there waiting to be found and bought.
fnord
That is clearly true. The question is really whether there is a way to subvert Shelby by using the discrepancy between stated purpose and actual result more transparent for Good Government Fund.
For example, require shareholder funds to be separate from employee donated funds and require reporting of the what, if not the who, to be done separately. Not that many rank and file workers will care much but the more wedges to allow talking points, by such unions as they are or by candidates, the better.
The first thing you learn as you walk in the door of law school is that corporate "personhood" is a legal fiction. It is meant to put a legal entity in between the corporation and its owner/investors to reduce the risks that discourage investing at all . For small companies it works well. But the idea that the law uses the word "person"--- and therefore the corporation has free speech rights that let it spend unidentified money on politics---basically means that our political culture is dominated by fictional characters. No wonder the world of "alternative facts" is so each for some to accept. Alternative Facts are in fact the function of fiction.
About illegality we can do little as long as those prone to it control the rules.