The corporation

is an excellent book by Joel Bakan (isbn 1-84529-174-3. As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:

"The corporation has essentially replaced the church in terms of who you are", says Edison Schools financier Michael Moe.

Indeed, the very notion that there is a public interest, a common good that transcends our individual self-interest, is slipping away. … These are the elements of an emerging order that may prove to be as dangerous as any fundamentalism that history has produced.

Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor, to borrow a phrase from George Bernard Shaw.

Most corporate law statutes include provisions that permit governments to dissolve a corporation, or seek a court order to dissolve it.

Corporations are our creations. They have no lives, no powers, and no capacities beyond what we, through our governments, give them.

We believe that some things are too vulnerable, precious, or important to exploit for profit.