Quote:
Originally posted by sgtclub
OK, I see where you are coming from there. The problem with that view, regardless of the history, is that entity theory rests on the fiction that an entity is separate an apart from its members.
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Exactly - it is a ficiton created by government! And that fiction is the primary benefit of being a corporation. It lets you dispose of interests as securities, it lets you have a corporation with limited liability, and it lets you have a decision making structure separate from your owners.
The federalists would have argued that corporations are horrific things that separate a business from those responsible for it. They would have argued that a corporate charter should only be granted for the public benefit for a project which some legislative body has vetted; they permitted, for example, the incorporation of the Erie Canal. A mere business would have an uphill battle. I always find it interesting how little many modern conservatives want to learn from the federalists. But, this was the time period when the principled federalists were giving way to the pragmatic and self-interested Whigs.
