{"id":17938,"date":"2021-03-07T07:57:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T14:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=17938"},"modified":"2021-03-07T07:57:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-07T14:57:00","slug":"overnight-news-the-limited-liability-corporation-is-the-rope-by-which-capitalism-hung-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17938\/overnight-news-the-limited-liability-corporation-is-the-rope-by-which-capitalism-hung-itself\/","title":{"rendered":"Overnight News: \u201cThe limited liability corporation is the rope by which Capitalism hung\u00a0itself.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ya

\u201cYou might think that I’m all ears, too, but I expect you’ll sniff out the truth in due\u00a0course.\u201d<\/p><\/div>Predatory traders are not new. Crassus, to pick an ugly example, would bring his fire brigade to your burning Roman insulae<\/em> \u2013 apartment building \u2013 but he wouldn’t have them start to put out the fire until you sold the property to him. The longer it burned, the cheaper it got. Desperate businesses get sold this way to this day.<\/p>\n

But it is liability limitation that made predation normal \u2013 or at least common, to be expected \u2013 in trade. We want to do business with the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker, but instead we wake up with fleas from Bezos, Dorsey and Zuckerberg \u2013 the law firm of all the people who didn’t read the Terms of Service.<\/p>\n

This is me, nearly sixteen years ago:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe essential defining characteristic of a corporation, as against other ways of organizing a business enterprise, is liability limitation, a conspiracy between the proprietors and the state to defraud tort claimants of all they might otherwise obtain in redress for their injuries. It’s pure Hamiltonian Social Engineering, Mercantilism at its worst. The idea is to encourage investment by limiting the risk. But by limiting responsibility, investment is distorted away from the individual integrity that is the sine qua non of enlightened self-interest. The limited liability corporation is the rope by which Capitalism hung itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some people are much better at particular jobs, which is how task specialization brought us the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. Some people are better at organizing and managing things, too, and this, also, is a talent to be exploited in the marketplace \u2013 within limits.<\/p>\n

Liability limitation rewards investors for hiring ruthless managers. The butcher marks up cost-plus not because everyone else does it that way, too, but because friends don’t gouge friends. The baker gives you a baker’s dozen doughnuts because you take care of the people who take care of you. The candlestick maker employs your kid part-time \u2013 not because he’s worth it, but because someday soon he Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou might think that I’m all ears, too, but I expect you’ll sniff out the truth in due\u00a0course.\u201dPredatory traders are not new. Crassus, to pick an ugly example, would bring his fire brigade to your burning Roman insulae \u2013 apartment building \u2013 but he wouldn’t have them start to put out the fire until you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,26,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-group-therapy","7":"category-lending","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3282,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3282\/casual-friday-caption-this-photo\/","url_meta":{"origin":17938,"position":0},"title":"Casual Friday: Caption this photo","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My entry: \"Because I happen to like Argyle socks, that's why!\"","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3822,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3822\/caption-this-photo-president-bush-at-the-olympics\/","url_meta":{"origin":17938,"position":1},"title":"Caption this photo: President Bush at the Olympics","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My entry: \"A gentleman always makes eye-contact.\"","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8385,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8385\/caption-me-this-magnum\/","url_meta":{"origin":17938,"position":2},"title":"Caption Me This Magnum","author":"Brian Brady","date":"May 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My vote?\u00a0 \"Who let Higgins in to your closet, Thomas? \" Sometimes, you just gotta have a sense of humor.","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3289,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3289\/shout-out-a-toast-to-life-abundant-and-caption-this-photo\/","url_meta":{"origin":17938,"position":3},"title":"Shout out a toast to life abundant — and caption this photo","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Sez me: \"Bill Gates stole this facial expression from me and I want it back!\"","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14685,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14685\/caption-obama-before-his-face-freezes-like-that\/","url_meta":{"origin":17938,"position":4},"title":"Caption Obama — before his face freezes like that.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My vote: \"I don't get it. This stunt always used to work with my Gammy.\"","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8372,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8372\/caption-this-photo-todd-carpenter-at-the-nar-mid-year-flamboozlepalooza\/","url_meta":{"origin":17938,"position":5},"title":"Caption this: Todd Carpenter at the NAR Mid-Year flamboozlepalooza","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My votes: \"MIBOR? That's above my pay grade.\" And: \"No, this is not a clip-on tie!\"","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17939,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17938\/revisions\/17939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}