Abstract
In an era of excessive executive compensation, the non-profit corporation serves as an exemplary alternative. Voluntarily, some brand-name manufacturers operate under existing law that permits non-profit ownership. Virtually all corporations could become non-profits under a legislative reform potentially more effective than past redistributive measures. Twentieth-century progressive taxation has waned, while initiatives to endow impoverished children with personal accounts have not expanded beyond pilot programs. Instead, economic inequality widens with global industrialization. Traditionally, deprivation led to the call for the abolition of private ownership of the means of production, yet this proved impracticable under revolutionary regimes. A review of the evolution of enterprise from artisanal workshops to nationwide firms leads to the non-profit organization. Currently focused on charity and other mutual benefits, the non-profit is a form of corporation constrained from the distribution of net earnings, operating not only in the traditionally charitable sectors, such as education and healthcare, but also the typically capitalist sectors, such as finance and manufacturing. Non-profit executives receive reasonable compensation for work combined with the satisfaction of a mission accomplished. Meanwhile, state, federal, and foreign legislators have enacted corporate reforms to reduce the tyranny of the profit motive. Even if legislatures cannot extinguish for-profits altogether, they can focus on abuses such as those among for-profit colleges. Reform of stockownership can promote equality, where private property consists of the juridical exclusion of economically undesirable persons. Yet the underlying impulse to exclude those who are culturally marked may persist in civil society.