Too big, to jail?

I always counted one of the greatest of the Juarez reforms the abolition of “Corporations.”  While it was aimed at breaking up the temporal power of the Catholic Church and was also used to break up the native communal lands (which may not have been an accident, Juarez and company being good “liberals” which in Latin America means the political theories of John Locke and Adam Smith… you know, what used to be called “Capitalism”).

While, somehow, Capitalism has allowed corporations to worm their way into the economic and social system over the last 150 years, unlike the United States, they have never been seen as persons in their own right.  What passes for a “corporation” in Mexico is a “Sociadad Anonimo” of one kind or another… whatever their size and whatever their complexity, they’re just a partnership.  This makes me wonder if Carlos Slim really is the “richest man in the world” or whether Forbes isn’t counting the wealth of the various corporations under the CARSO group as Slim’s personal wealth.

Of course, SOMEBODY — who is a real person — is entrusted with the overall management of the funds contributed by the various partners.    Anyway, I always thought the big advantage of the Mexican system was that businesses aren’t disembodied beings (like vampires) but simply the activities of living, breathing humans.

As such, they can — and do — commit criminal acts.  Where a corporation in the United States, say Massey Energy Company, commits acts that cost people their lives, kills people through its actions or inactions, the State cannot physically punish a being that doesn’t physically exist.  The most it can do is force it to turn over some money.  However, the socios of a Sociadad Anonomo can — and on some occasions are — tossed in the pokie.

Of course, it’s usually the low level guys that get sent for social readaption and it doesn’t happen very often, but it’s worth noting that the Chamber of Deputies on 21-April a new anti-trust law:

… that seeks to strengthen competition among companies by imposing stiffer fines on firms that act as monopolies and jail terms on their managers.

The bill, which now moves to the Senate, beefs up the power of the Federal Competition Commission, known as Cofeco, by allowing it to fine companies that collude on prices 10 percent of the revenue they report in Mexico. The legislation would also allow for sentences of as long as 10 years for officials whose companies act as monopolies.

Unexpectedly, the Senate ratified the bill two days later.  Carlos Slim, naturally lobbied against the bill, as the present structure of the telephone companies he heads will be affected, but the opposition within Congress came, surprisingly, from the left.  The reason — the penalties are too mild.

Not that they think Slim belongs in jail (and I don’t think he’s a villain — just a really smart rich guy who would have gotten very, very rich no matter what the political or economic system), and he has and does work with leftist governments.  Maybe some on the left want Slim in jail just because he’s a rich guy, but the leftist objections were to loopholes that allow for “concessions” like our one and a half television networks (Azteca and Televisa — both controlled by the same family) that are in reality monopolies, but may be unaffected by the new legislation.  The other objection is that this opens the door to foreign companies, which … even with a “Mexican jurisdictional personality” (agreeing that in Mexico they are bound my Mexican law) … are controlled by those vampiric creatures called “Corporations”.

Still, it might be satisfying to see a few rich guys sent to a new executive suite with bars on the windows.