Today’s Scandal – 3/15/2010: The First Corporation to Run for Congress

When I saw this article Corporate entity becomes ‘candidate’, kicks off bid for Congress I hoped it was a cruel joke.  Then I started seeing additional coverage of the same story in other places, such as, The Washington Post, and NBC.  This an extremely bad idea for the following reasons:

(1) The only possible use of a congressional seat to a company is to further its own financial interests, which results in a conflict of interest between what is best for the corporation and what is best for the country.   This is why many public servants divest their assets, or put them into a blind trust before assuming office.

(2) If the company does not use its congressional seat to influence policy in its own favor (either by divesting or abstaining on certain votes), then the it is not servicing its fiduciary responsibility to provide the shareholders a good return on their investment.

(3) The reach of special interests, including large abusive corporations is unprecedentedly large and needs to be rolled back, most especially due to how much legal protection they have already obtained for their egregious customer service (think of banks and record labels).

How can this be stopped?

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