I was looking at a paint brush just now, and because paint brushes figure into my life, I was looking at it while thinking about the recent SCOTUS decision that decided that corporations have the rights of people.

The paint brush had natural bristles, which are really the best in a lot of applications. They come from pigs, traditionally.

I wondered whether the bristles came off the pigs while they were alive, or after.

Then I realized that basically, it was an economic decision. All the parts of the pig were going to be used, commercially, because that's what the pig was raised for, to make product.

And it made me think that humans are the exception, among animals, in that we generally don't contribute to the environment upon our death the way that decomposing plants in the forest do, or the way all of the parts of the food chain depend on each other. We either incinerate our remains, or bury them in such a fashion that they are isolated from becoming (frankly) fertilizer.

But now that corporations have the same rights as humans, I have to wonder: isn't there some value being wasted there?

Humans are well-fed, their toxin load (while not negligible) is generally not what killed them, and we have an extremely well developed system for processing the dead (and the pre-dead) in our health care system. Ambulances, hospitals, and support staff to track the expense of each subject. Heck, it's bar-coded and shovel ready. Except we should get beyond the shovel, and maximize the resources we have.

And by "we", I mean all American citizens. Along with the multinational corporations who are now free to compete on a level playing field with us, dollar wise. What could go wrong?


Thank you, Chief Justice Roberts, for seeing beyond settled law to something more expansive: the value of each human life.

I'm anxious to see what I'm worth in this new, free market.