Well, Thunder, the word “corporation” comes from the Latin “corpus”, which means “body”. The idea is that you can create a body, and thus legal entity in the eyes of society. A corporation only exists on paper, and usually owns assets. People will “incorporate” a business to remove liability from themselves. If Joe owns a store, and somebody falls and breaks a hip in the store, they can sue Joe for his store PLUS his personal property (home, cars, jewelry, etc.). If Joe incorporates his store, he creates a legal entity, Joe’s Store, and the assets would be the store and all of its wares. Now, if that somebody falls and breaks a hip in the store, they can still sue, but only the store and its wares are up for grabs, not Joe’s personal property.
In the United States, corporations are allowed to influence politics by backing candidates and donating to political campaigns. I am rather disturbed by the fact that they are allowed to contribute much more than individual citizens are. Personally, I don’t think corporations should be able to donate any money to political campaigns because they do not have the right to vote. Thus, I do not think they should be allowed to influence the outcome of an election.
Is it legal for a corporation to adopt a child? I don’t think there are specific laws against it, which would probably make it allowable. But I think public opinion would be so against a company doing it that it would be a death blow to any company that did it. If a company did do it, I’m sure governments would start enacting legislation to make it illegal.
