"So money is one of the great threats to democracy. A second
threat is what Roman law called persona ficta, fictitious persons —
corporations, labor unions, and similar organizations which have
the legal status of persons in the sense that they can buy and sell
property, they can sue and be sued in the courts, they are generally
anonymous, they are certainly irresponsible, and they are increasingly
powerful. The 15th amendment and various court rulings have
given corporations all the rights of living persons. This is dangerous
because they already have certain rights that real persons don’t have,
principally immortality. That’s the saving grace about even the worst
scoundrel: someday he will die, and maybe we can wait that long. We
felt that way about, Hitler, and Stalin. Maybe Mao is different; we’ll
see. But a corporation never dies. It has the first quality of divinity, as
the ancient Greeks defined it. They called their gods the immortals,
because the only quality they had that set them apart from men was
that they never died.
Besides setting limits to corporate immortality, we must put
other restraints upon all fictitious persons, including foundations,
universities, and all such entities. From 1890 there was competition
among the States to lower the restraints on corporations. Originally,
when a corporation was set up, its charter specified what it was
entitled to do, sell hamburgers to the public or whatever. Today there
are no restrictions, no restraints, no reporting."
- Carrol Quigley, LIFE, LECTURES & COLLECTED WRITINGS, p. 203
Besides setting limits to corporate immortality, we must put other restraints upon all fictitious persons, including foundations, universities, and all such entities. From 1890 there was competition among the States to lower the restraints on corporations. Originally, when a corporation was set up, its charter specified what it was entitled to do, sell hamburgers to the public or whatever. Today there are no restrictions, no restraints, no reporting."
- Carrol Quigley, LIFE, LECTURES & COLLECTED WRITINGS, p. 203