An individual entrepreneur can run his company in a very socially responsible manner, and many do. The firms we talk about here, partly or mainly owned by people like Mr Branson, Mr Jobs, Mr Gates, etc, often reflect the philanthropic interests of their owners. After all, these men have all the money they could possibly want, they can afford to share some of it with society.

But a publicly held firm must be managed in such a way that it brings maximum benefit to the stockholders. It isn’t easy for a hired executive, an employee, to convince the Board that social responsibility can have a financial benefit, even if it is only good public relations. When the stockholders themselves are also companies or trusts, whose stock is held by still other companies, often many times removed from individual human investors, big companies tend to operate like organisms with a mind of their own, looking after their own survival and growth without any consideration for human needs.

This is not an ethical or moral criticism, it is an unavoidable consequence of market forces. After all, I would not be too happy if whoever was managing MY pension fund was spending money saving the rainforest, or providing earthquake relief, or engaged in some other philanthropic activity which I didn’t care about.

Regardless of what Mr Romney says, corporations are NOT people, and they don’t act like them, unless they are owned by a person. There is a a fundamental difference between a private business owned by man and a large firm whose ownership is dispersed and collectivized.

He is quite a guy.