Companies should die!

Posted by TheUwUCosmic@reddit | CrazyIdeas | View on Reddit | 22 comments

Of old age. Every company upon creation rolls a 50-100 number that isnt disclosed to them. When the time passes they die and their assets are dissolved. I simply dont think corporations should become immortal overlords of their markets. They should be(and legally are) people too.

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dickpics4democracy@reddit

I haven't spent any time thinking about the unintended consequences of this but I like where your head's at; if we're gonna treat corps like they're legally human, there's gotta be some consequences to that.

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BlindSpotOperator@reddit

Very easy loophole for riches. They would easily find a way.

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TheGameMastre@reddit

Just stop bailing them out when they do stupid shit. Let them fail naturally.

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FungusGnatHater@reddit

They should be(and legally are) people too.

That's a stupid thing to say.

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Character_School_671@reddit

I'm sure this would encourage responsible management of all of those 95 year old companies and make them wonderful to work at, right??

Plus, lots of primary industries have old companies, becausethe sectoris relatively stable. Things we don't think about but utterly depend on. Water, power, railroads, gas, mining, agriculture, heavy equipment and industry.

I don't think it's going to be helpful to randomly force Alcoa, John Deere, or Union Pacific to close.

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bsknuckles@reddit

John Deere and UP would be a benefit to society if they shut down. Alcoa I’m less familiar with, but aluminum production? Another company could pick up that slack I’m sure.

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Character_School_671@reddit

You underestimate the disruption this would cause.

Also, the services they provide are still needed, so who is going to provide those? And for the railroad, some company has to take over the track, rolling stock, and maintenance of it all.

None of that unnecessary replacement happens without disruption, cost, and pain for workers.

Do you like paying more for food, housing, airline travel, energy, and everything produced by heavy industry for consumer use? Because this is how you get that.

There is a saying about if something isn't broke - don't fix it. This is even worse, it's like if something isn't broke - deliberately breaking it.

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SkiyeBlueFox@reddit

Deere makes a decent machine and has a good parts department, but their service pricing and codes and allat make them a pain to deal with sometimes. We run a few deeres because we're in the kinda industry that needed those spare parts an hour ago, not in a week. Less mission critical stuff we tend to run kubota because theyre a bit cheaper but just as willing to take abuse

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Megalocerus@reddit

Almost every company I ever worked at has ceased to operate under its identity at the time I worked there. They've all be sold or liquidated. Creative destruction in action. Or maybe I'm the angel of death.

Strangely, amid all that economic turmoil, I've never been laid off.

These were large and medium businesses not among the largest. Still, Google reports the average lifespan of a S&P500 company has shrunk from 61 years to under 18 years. You better hope you live longer than a corporation. Rest in peace, Sears.

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agitatedprisoner@reddit

When you incorporate you select a race and sex for your corporation.

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shasaferaska@reddit

Theres a pub in my city that's over 900 years old. Are you saying it should he forced to shut down? Your solution also wouldn't solve anything because the same rich people would just start a new company and immediately buy all the old companies assets.

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Cum_Fart42069@reddit

this guy's idea is crazy!

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Scumbag__@reddit

And they should have the death penalty for companies that get too evil

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ChipKellysShoeStore@reddit

So you want people to be unemployed randomly?

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Civil_Huckleberry212@reddit

I don't know if I like your mechanism but the actual idea behind it is an interesting one

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secretprocess@reddit

The mechanism is called anti-monopoly law and it doesn't get used enough.

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Toothiestluke@reddit

There are plenty of small businesses that have lasted longer than 50-100 years. I wouldn’t want some of those historic pubs in London or bathhouses in Japan to suddenly vanish. Plus, almost all of the problem companies of today are less than 50 years old.

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