Thanks for the link

Hate to get even close to politics, but just to balance out some “aggressive opinions” already expressed in the Oregonian chat, somebody should be giving a little bit of the other side of the argument. Please ignore this post if that turns you off.

All those people who are calling Blazers fans names like “idiots” and “babies” for their concern and ire — making typical corporatist, absolute capitalist arguments like, “they own the rights, they can charge what they want and do whatever they dang well please with their rights”; or “the notion that sports fans have any rights or legitimate expectations whatsoever is ludicrous;” are fundamentally neglecting the inherent obligation of all corporations to benefit the communities that charter them.

Some are pretending that a corporation is an absolutely independent individual entity, and that all principles of something like “good ol’ American individualism”, with its presumed absolute individual freedoms (here I am thinking of, say, tea party types of arguments for corporate freedom, or even conservative libertarian arguments), is the main principle operating here, since a corporation is an “artificial individual”. To such people, the “individual” rights of the corporation, as the owner of capital, is the primary issue; exactly as it would be for an individual person’s property rights..

But providing benefits to a community is the whole, original point of a corporate charter, and is part and parcel of the essential, original purpose and nature of corporations.

Why do you think corporations (particularly the bigger ones) get all the huge, unique benefits they get by virtue of being corporations? The original justification for granting corporations all the rights of what is called “artificial personhood” — which are huge, including all the tax breaks, asset protection, legal status as artificial persons, congressional influence, and corporate welfare — was that doing so benefits communities. A corporate charter expresses trust between a business and a community.

If a corporation by its actions acts contrary to the interests of the community that chartered them, and lavished them with the inherent benefits of incorporation, that corporation is accountable to that community down to its very existence in that community, or charter. An American corporate charter is fundamentally an investment by a community in itself

So are the people of Oregon getting a fair return on their very real and substantive investment in Comcast, an investment that goes far beyond what they pay as mere business customers? Is Comcast fulfilling their part of the trust bargain with the people of Oregon who allow them to do business in their State under the substantial privileges of incorporation?

These are legitimate questions from the perspective of normal American capitalism. That’s all I am saying.