[jcfrei]

Why should there be a separation between corporations and government? I could see a valid argument for limiting their influence on government but they are an important stakeholder in society. So why shouldn't they have some influence (in particular on the legislative process)?

[zanny]

People are the stakeholders in society. The CEO, board, management, and investors of every company are people and are by and large residents of a democratic state they can vote in.

That should the extent of their legislative and electoral influence. As soon as corporations have any voice in government beyond that you are left with a facsimile of democracy where the amount of power and money you control directly correlates to your influence in the purported democratic institutions of your government.

A corporation involved in politics is exclusively behaving to the whims of its controlling interest which is almost always an investor class numbering between one and a hundred persons. Their interests are obviously and profoundly over-represented in the legislative agendas of practically every government on Earth and its due to the double edged sword of their personal wealth directly buying them political will and their ownership of business giving them a mouthpiece and apparatus to also influence politics through. Both are destructive to civilization, whose their influence has waxed and waned for half a millennia. Where their peaks often bore a prelude to catastrophic events in history.

[SV_BubbleTime]

> Why should there be a separation between corporations and government?

I wouldn’t say there should or shouldn’t be.

I look at it like this... do you have a job to do? Is that job directly tied to a political position? If not, do your job.

Don’t talk about politics or religion (if they’re even a different thing anymore) at work. You are just going to offend someone for no reason.