The worry that I have about the decision isn't so much the direct effect that most people here are discussing - that is, the fact that corporations are now free to endorse candidates through the media because, the majority tells us, money is speech. That may or may not have disastrous policy implications, but there's a secondary effect as well: the products that we buy from these corporations now have inherently political implications, and we can't know the ramifications of these implications at the time that we spend money.

Consider this - you're an American choosing which car to buy. Whereas before you might have made your decision based on the safety rating of each vehicle or perhaps because of the interior or the innovative ergonomic technology, now you're forced to consider the ramifications that your purchase will have on the discretion of the car company that you choose to buy from to influence elections. I really like the Focus, but I don't have health insurance. Will Ford spend money endorsing a candidate who opposes health care reform?

I like to think that I make my consumer decisions rationally - that is, by weighing the positive effects against the negative effects the product will inflict on my life and then measuring the sum of that effect against the money I'll have to spend in order to buy it. Now, though, there's a shrouded, mysterious political element to my choice that I am aware exists but that I cannot reliably predict.

You might argue that this has always been the case. After all, individuals have always been able to donate to political campaigns, and the CEO of Ford has always had an increased ability to donate whenever I decide to sign for that Focus because a portion of the money that I pay for that car goes to him. However I might argue that while the effect may not be new, this inherently political character towards product purchasing has now been greatly magnified.

Of course, you might make the counter-argument that this could lead to the democratization of corporations. If consumers began to make choices on which product to buy based upon the election spending that the company would make, corporations might, you could argue, begin to spend only in ways that their consumer base would support. I would argue, however, that this is unlikely. Most consumers won't know about the ability of corporations to make political advertisements with the money given to the corporation from the consumer, and many consumers who do will probably not change their behavior substantially.

-- AndrewCascini - 03 Feb 2010