Do corporations deserve to exist and why?

[The Magistrate]

2. Like Fire, Sir: Good Servant, Bad Master

The basic idea, that for certain defined purposes, a group of people may be treated as a single body, can be useful. Its original purpose was to fit groups, such as towns or associations of tradesmen, into a system of feudal government, in which obligations and duties were always owed by individuals. Its later development, to serve as a vehicle for collective investment, usually in things which required too much capital for a single person to raise, or put it to more risk than a single individual would bear for any large portion of his capital, also had some social utility and could result in wide benefit.

Corporations, being wholly artificial constructs, have no inherent nature whatever: they function according the rules drawn up by governments for their creation and behavior. At least in theory, they fall under the 'what problems men create, men can solve' maxim --- the rules, both for their creation and operation, are certainly within the power of people to change....