The Left used to have a piece of the puzzle; now it’s the Right, while the Left are Big Corp fanboys. Neither come close to the natural flaw that is inherent in all corporations.

Before I begin, I want you to pause for a moment and consider what could be the most fundamental, inherent flaw in the man-made invention of corporations. What are corporations? They are legally referred to as statutory entities. They operate under a specific set of laws as a corporation. So, when I ask what the most fundamental flaw is, I’m questioning the nature of a corporation as a business structure. What is it about a corporation, a statutory entity, that is fundamentally flawed? It boils down to one thing, two words.

So, why is this important? Once you understand what this flaw is, you’ll grasp why it’s so crucial and why there is no reconciliation possible with it. It is that fundamental. The concept of corporations will always be fundamentally corrupted because of this one thing. There’s no way to get around it due to our nature as human beings and our nature as moral agents. In other words, the whole idea of a corporations is completely fucked up. And I’m here to educate you as to why. If that sounds condescending, I don’t care.

Moreover, having this core knowledge will be highly effective and competitive if you are currently operating or overseeing a business (organized as a corporation, or otherwise) or intend to weigh in at some point (even if you do organize as a corporation). If you’re going to play the game, at least understand the biggest vulnerability so that you can make decisions accordingly.

What is a business? A business encapsulates activities that deliver goods and services to a market teeming with customers. It is simplicity personified.

So, we probe further: what boon does a corporation bring to the entrepreneurial table? Is there an intrinsic quality within the corporate framework that amplifies our ability to concoct, produce, distribute, or supply these goods and services? Or, turning the question on its head, if you’re operating outside the corporate sphere, why bother to incorporate?

Let’s dissect this. I’m going to first give you the stock fanboy version.

The corporate structure, at its core, is about shielding. It’s a legal fortress safeguarding personal assets from the potential onslaught of business liabilities. Think of it as a moat around your personal financial castle. But this moat doesn’t just protect; it also confers credibility. In the eyes of customers, suppliers, and investors, the corporate veil adds a layer of legitimacy, a badge of serious intent.

Moreover, corporations are immortality machines. Unlike mortal human beings, a corporation can, in theory, persist ad infinitum, its existence unbound by the lifespan of its founders. This eternal life allows for long-term planning and investments that might make little sense for a business tethered to the biological clock of its owner.

Access to capital is another key advantage. The corporate structure opens doors to financing options that sole proprietors can only dream of. Stock issuance, bonds, and other financial instruments are the arsenal of the corporation, allowing it to amass resources on a scale that dwarfs the individual entrepreneur’s capacity.

And yet, incorporation isn’t a panacea. It comes with its own litany of complexities—regulations to obey, bureaucracies to navigate, and soulless formalities that can stifle the very innovation and agility that likely made the business a success in its embryonic stage.

Why incorporate? The question isn’t just a practical one; it’s a philosophical decision about how you choose to engage with the world of commerce. It’s a decision that should be made not because you’re told it’s the next obligatory step on the business ladder, but because it aligns with your strategic vision for growth, risk management, and long-term prosperity.

Summing up the “pros,” incorporation is not inherently virtuous. It’s a tool—potent, yes, but merely a means to an end. It’s up to you, the free-thinking entrepreneur, to determine whether that tool will build the empire you envision, or if it will become a golden shackle that restrains your business’s true potential. Choose wisely. Your business, your rules.

Now let’s critique it.

I wrote:

“The corporate structure, at its core, is about shielding. It’s a legal fortress designed to safeguard personal assets from the potential onslaught of business liabilities. Imagine it as a moat encircling your personal financial castle. But it’s not merely a protective measure; it also bestows credibility. In the eyes of customers, suppliers, and investors, the corporate veil signifies a degree of legitimacy, a badge of serious intent.”

Do you grasp the issue here? There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with the concept of shielding. It can be as simple as an actual shield on a battlefield, a bulletproof vest, or shelter from the elements. It’s a roof over your head, providing shade and a few degrees of cooler temperature. There are myriad forms of shielding, and there are businesses that offer these protections. We have a plethora of products to shield ourselves from various hazards.

When we talk about actions or accidents, we refer to insurance. There’s auto insurance, health insurance, general liability, flood insurance, home insurance—the list is extensive. The purpose of insurance is to shield you from the short-term and immediate financial onslaught of costs—costs for which you would normally be liable in case of misfortune, an accident, or even negligence on your part. These are things for which you are typically, normally, and morally responsible. There’s no magical force in the sky or in society that makes someone else liable for your problems.

But with insurance, companies have calculated the risk. One way to look at it is as a method to pay for your misfortunes over a long period; it’s called a premium. Add up all the insurance you’ve got, and you’re faced with a monthly payment that spans years. It’s like a payment plan for all the fuck-ups in your life, or the times you got screwed over. It doesn’t absolve you of responsibility; it merely spreads it out over time.

Of course, insurance companies are in the business of profit. On a broad scale, most people will pay just about what their various liabilities amount to, plus a bit more for the insurance company’s profit. On one end of the distribution, some people get completely shafted—they’ve paid premiums their entire lives and never needed to claim. That’s all money down the drain. On the other end, you have those who seem cursed with misfortune; their costs are astronomical, yet covered by their insurance.

I’ve experienced this firsthand. I bought a house and paid an initial homeowner’s insurance premium of about a hundred bucks. Six weeks later, the house burned down, and the insurer shelled out over a quarter of a million dollars. I won big time. Or consider someone with health problems whose costs escalate into the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

How does this relate to corporate liability shields? Well, it’s not the same as purchasing insurance. You can buy liability insurance, including policies for officers and directors of companies, providing extra protection beyond what’s granted by corporate statutes. These statutes state: “It’s the corporation that screwed up, not you.” This is morally reprehensible. It’s enforced by the state, artificially absolving individuals of accountability.

A corporation is a fictitious entity; it can’t act on its own. It’s the sum of decisions made by individual people. Thus, the corporate structure incentivizes, with state backing, the fucking over of others without the repercussions that would normally follow such actions. This is why there’s no moral justification for a corporation that includes liability shielding from the normal consequences of human actions.

There’s no remedy for this, as it’s inherent to what a corporation is. Strip away liability shielding, and what you have is just another business. Traditional business forms, such as sole proprietorships and partnerships, can achieve everything corporations are touted for, like raising capital and exuding respectability. All these can be accomplished through contracts without the need for a corporate structure whose only purpose is to escape the consequences of actions. That’s precisely why it’s a societal problem, manifesting in various ways.

Consider pharmaceutical companies that have been fined billions for harming and killing people. How many of their employees, officers, directors, or stockholders have forked over a penny of personal wealth to cover these fines? Not one. And that’s fundamentally why such harm and killing persist; they escape personal liability. In some egregious cases, they should face prosecution and, if convicted, execution as per standard court procedures.

In essence, when you purchase products and services from corporations, you’re potentially financing the machinery that could lead to your own destruction. It’s a grim reality, but one that cannot be ignored if we are to address the fundamental flaws in our corporate-driven society.

… To come full circle, let’s address an issue that the traditional left might not have explicitly outlined, but they sure as hell had the gist of it. There’s this behemoth, this largely unaccountable conglomerate that hoards capital and resources like a dragon on its gold pile. And what does it do with this amassed fortune? It buys influence. It purchases political favor and pushes for legislation that serves its own corporate agenda, engaging in what can only be called corporate capture and rent-seeking behaviors.

These corporate giants are suffocating the life out of mom-and-pop shops, sole proprietorships, and partnerships. They erect artificial and, at times, insurmountable barriers to entry—things like excessive licensing, certification, and operational standards that are simply unattainable unless you’re as well-capitalized as they are. It’s a form of monopolization, a stranglehold on the market that bars small-time players from even setting foot on the playing field.

The left, I’ll give them this, they seemed to have understood a lot of this. They knew it was a problem. Meanwhile, the pro-business right just didn’t make the proper distinctions that I’ve laid out about what a corporation is really for. They missed the mark, completely oblivious to the monster they were feeding.

Now, fast-forward to events like Brexit, the Trump election, then COVID, and all the other societal chaos that ensued. You’ll notice a bizarre reversal—suddenly, the left can’t get enough of the corporate teat. They’re enamored with big corporations and global conglomerates. The right, on the other hand, they’re finally beginning to see the light. They know there’s a problem. They can’t quite put their finger on it, they can’t articulate it yet, but they sense it. They’re aware that the game is rigged, even if they’re still struggling to read the rulebook that’s been set by these corporate titans.

In essence, it’s a mess—a convoluted tangle of interests where once-clear lines have blurred. It’s the ultimate irony: those who once championed the rights of the individual and free enterprise are now in bed with the entities that crush those very principles. Go figure.