Chapters 7-9 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 7 - Private Lives And Corporate Rights

There is a great contradiction between the values on which America was founded and the power that is now yielded by corporations. America was initially created by people trying to escape governmental and organizational oppression. Now, there is an unbalanced relationship between corporations and individuals. It's hard to tell the difference between corporate rights and private lives.

The history of corporations goes way back to at least the 16th century. At that time, debts were carried through generations, and those who couldn't pay were put into debtor's prison. With the corporate form, shareholders were limited to liabilities that were no greater than their investment. This seemed great at first.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the United States only had a few hundred corporations. Some were concerned that corporations would have...