OT: Public referrendums on destroying evil companies

[minipol]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
I'm not sure about that, but who knows. I use Lavasoft's Ad-Aware. It's free, small, fast, and works well.

I also use Spybot. Together they rock.

[Erax]

This may surprise some of you, but down here McDonald's is in many ways an admirable company. They have a standard for quality, which many of our national fast-food chains do not. While expensive for the average Brazilian, they are still cheaper than comparable competitors. Their employees are always polite - it's impossible to have an argument with them because they always agree with you. Their places are generally clean and tastefully furnished. The food is always the same, but they usually come up with a dozen 'special' recipes every year. Every year they have a 'charity day' in which all of the Big Mac sales are donated to child cancer hospitals. Much of this is probably because they are run as a franchise, so most decisions are made on the spot and not in some boardroom half a world away. I personally have nothing against them.

[Cyrien]

I don't have anything against McDonalds either. They are a well run business as fast food goes, good marketing, and they aren't a monopoly. I have in the past traveled extensively and in many cases I would see more Burger Kings than McDonalds. I will admit that was at least five to ten years ago for foreign nations that were located in Europe so maybe things have changed.

Sometimes they do things that are stupid such as suing in Scotland for the exlusive rights to McDonald.

I don't really like the food and much prefer Whataburger for quality but every now and then I do get a light craving for McDonalds and go have one and that is it until a few months later when I will have another one or will be in a rush and it is what is available.

Is McDonalds evil? Nah. Just a super corporation and at least in my book not one of the bad ones as at least it isn't a super global monopoly with control of all or almost all fast food everywhere.

[Instar]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
The Last question is the most important. Companies are NOT people and should not be given the rights of people. Yet some senile old Supreme Court judges in the late 19th century gave them the rights of people and no one since has had the brains or guts to fix this ****up legislatively. Prior to this disaster a 'company' was a public trust and was vulnerable to the public if it exploited and harmed them. Since that Supreme Court ruling they are the proxy shields for the new Robber Barons. Someday, someone has got to stand up and say 'no quasi-governmental power without commensurate responsbility to the public!'

Corporations need the rights as individuals, its necessary for them.
Also, the public *can* get rid of companies -- just stop buying their bloody products! X10.com went out of business recently, no one bought their schlock and thus they ran outta money.
And I rather like Microsoft, so you can bugger off!

[Growltigger]

Instar is exactly correct. Corporations need the same rights as individuals if only for the customer's own protection - so they can sue the company!! you couldn't do that if the company had no separate legal identity!

As to customers, there is no company in the world that has such a monopoly that you cannot exercise your legal right to object to that company by not buying its products.

As to McDonalds, I dont have any real objection to them at all. I dont eat it, and am not particularily happy when the "golden arches" are suspended 50 feet in the sky glowing cos I am anti-light pollution.

I suppose the only thing I dont like about McDonalds (other than the burgers) is the marketing bias they have toward children, but then KFC tends to do the same, and I do like Kentucky Fried Rodent

[PvK]

Corporations do not need, nor should they have, the same rights as humans. Growltigger, your example is non-sequitur - equal rights is not the same thing as legal existance.

Nor do humans need corporations. Corporations should only exist to do beneficial things, and when they start becoming monsters, they should be controlled.

Saying that the people who are sufficiently informed can avoid buying certain products is a ridiculous non-solution.

As I said before, I included McDonalds on the list mainly out for humor and curiosity.

PvK

[Cyrien]

I have to agree with PvK.

Corporations do not need the same rights you and I have. Lets look at that.

Should a Corporation have the right to vote in elections? Does a coporation have a fundamental right to exist? If a corporation commits murder does it get the death penalty? Can it change citizenship and get a drivers license? A student loan so it can better itself with a better education?

No. All of those would be absurd because a corporation IS NOT a person. So why should it be given the rights of one? The reason is simple. Because by doing so you save time and effort on lazy legal law makers who don't want to create a seperate class for Corporations so you just say they are people. That gives them lots of rights, some they should have and some they shouldn't and you don't need to do anything cept let the courts decide.