WHAT IS A CORPORATION?

[Reef_Geek]

Originally Posted by RuGlu6

You hit the nail right on the head, friend !
Humans are the only creatures that have to pay for living on this planet.
That is why most of us are just slaves.

I'm thinking it's about time that my dog and fish start to pull their weight around this joint... freaking freeloaders...

[SanguinesDream]

Originally Posted by Reef_Geek

I'm thinking it's about time that my dog and fish start to pull their weight around this joint... freaking freeloaders...

Snerk.

[windcoast reefs]

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by RuGlu6

You hit the nail right on the head, friend !
Humans are the only creatures that have to pay for living on this planet.
That is why most of us are just slaves.

I completely disagree to this. Every living thing in this world "pay" to live. Different beings pay differently. For us, its money. For fishes, one pay with his/her life to save the rest. For corals, they pay by not been able to move. Starfishes pay by leaving parts of their bodies. For tigers, they pay by waiting for the next meal.

In the end, EVERYTHING pays. We happen to pay with pieces of papers (and being from a 3rd world country, that doesn't always work too, sometimes lives are also used as a form of payment).

And to the term "slave" that you used, you can't choose yourself to be a "slave". And there's always the option of being free (or to layman's term, live what you love and go to the wild where you don't have to...umm...PAY).

[reefermadness]

I'm feeling this dude... I got your back haha.

There is a good documentary called "The Corporation". In the film they make the case that If a corporation was a human being, that human being would be the dictionary definition of a psychopath. The film makes a lot of good points but is kinda long and dragged out. In the end it clearly shows that the system is heavily flawed (corps have obviously done a lot to further mankind but there are always down sides). What is the solution? Corporate money in politics is not right IMO. In the states its unlimited.....the corporations and special interest groups practically run the government.

One cool alternative to a corporation is a co-op. There are worker co-ops, were the workers share ownership and member co-ops. MEC is an awesome example of a member co-op. Very cool to read about..

http://www.mec.ca/AST/ContentPrimary.../MECShares.jsp

http://www.mec.ca/AST/ContentPrimary...p/CoOpFaqs.jsp

Not to imply that is a complete solution. I do think the way the system today is is messed up though....think about how big corporations have got in the last 50 years. Everyone shops at the name brand corporation.

Scary fact: The 6 Walton (Walmart) family members are now worth 93 billion. They are richer than the bottom 30% (108 million) of Americans.

[reefermadness]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

I completely disagree to this. Every living thing in this world "pay" to live. Different beings pay differently. For us, its money. For fishes, one pay with his/her life to save the rest. For corals, they pay by not been able to move. Starfishes pay by leaving parts of their bodies. For tigers, they pay by waiting for the next meal.

In the end, EVERYTHING pays. We happen to pay with pieces of papers (and being from a 3rd world country, that doesn't always work too, sometimes lives are also used as a form of payment).

And to the term "slave" that you used, you can't choose yourself to be a "slave". And there's always the option of being free (or to layman's term, live what you love and go to the wild where you don't have to...umm...PAY).

In the context of the original post "pay" was used to refer to money and the monetary system...not something physical. Tomato, potato.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

In the context of the original post "pay" was used to refer to money and the monetary system...not something physical. Tomato, potato.

My point is every living thing has to pay one way or the other with something, its not just us humans. Its in the whole eco system.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

One cool alternative to a corporation is a co-op. There are worker co-ops, were the workers share ownership and member co-ops. MEC is an awesome example of a member co-op. Very cool to read about..

Co-ops (incl credit unions) are just another type of corporation. Here is how our CRA looks at it.
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tp...s/thr-eng.html

They are given certain benefits, like tax breaks, for being non-profit. I actually belong to one, and buy almost all my fuel from them.

But the downside is that usually they lack the expertise, sophistication and motivation to compete with their for profit cousins. And they don't contribute much (in taxes) to pay for our education, health care, social services etc, like individuals and for profit corporations do.

The old Soviet Union essentially operated like a bunch of giant cooperatives, except their "members" didn't always have a lot of say in how they were operated.

[reefermadness]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

My point is every living thing has to pay one way or the other with something, its not just us humans. Its in the whole eco system.

Yes everything that can feel pain will and every living thing will die one day. No other living thing will pay with money.... That logic is sound, but I don't necessarily think the way he put it was good though.

Do you know that roughly 25,000 people day of starvation. While we all went about our day today 18,000 kids starved to death. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/...n-hunger_x.htm

You know what would stop those people from starving.....MONEY. (yes, or a way to provide for themselves but in our society that means money).

[reefermadness]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

Co-ops (incl credit unions) are just another type of corporation. Here is how our CRA looks at it.
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tp...s/thr-eng.html

They are given certain benefits, like tax breaks, for being non-profit. I actually belong to one, and buy almost all my fuel from them.

But the downside is that usually they lack the expertise, sophistication and motivation to compete with their for profit cousins. And they don't contribute much (in taxes) to pay for our education, health care, social services etc, like individuals and for profit corporations do.

The old Soviet Union essentially operated like a bunch of giant cooperatives, except their "members" didn't always have a lot of say in how they were operated.

I never said a society filled with co-ops is the answer....although it may be part of one. Stiffer regulation, corporate money out of politics, that would help.

Look Im not down playing the important role corporation have had in the past and present but they are larger than ever and more powerful than ever. They only have one purpose and that is to make money at all costs. If the idea of breaking the law and getting caught is less costly (in dollar terms) they do it.

And as far as paying taxes.....many of the largest US business such as GE paid no corporate income taxes last year.