Avatars

This is what I wrote about Citizens United v. FEC a few days ago:

One of the most evil things that the Supreme Court did in the 19th Century was to comment that corporations are legally equivalent to people. That was then, and still is today, bullshit. You cannot throw a corporation (or a labor union) in jail. All you can do is fine them, which the managers don't give a shit about, as long as the fines don't put the company into a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

There is a way to get around that, and that is by the use of the corporate avatar.

Corporations have to act through living people, regardless of what those five ghouls on the Supreme Court think. So here is my idea: If a corporation is found guilty of a felony, the corporation has to pay the fine associated with the charge. The officers and directors of the corporation do the time. It won't matter if they knew anything about it or not. They don't get a criminal record out of it, nothing has to be proven against them, as individuals. They are the stand-ins for the corporation, the avatars, and if the corporation does the crime, the avatars will do the time.

It will, of course, suck to be them if the actions of a corporation are a capital crime. But that's why they pulled down the big bucks.