# Quote — David Cay Johnston, The Fine Print

> If... immortal, amoral and greed-driven people walked the earth, we would have to rewrite our laws governing property. ...[O]ur new class of immortals could just keep accumulating wealth and power forever. In time they would probably own every... asset on earth worth having. ...[That] immortal being is the modern corporation.

- Author: [David Cay Johnston](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-cay-johnston.md)
- Book: [The Fine Print](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-cay-johnston/the-fine-print.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Cay_Johnston#The_Fine_Print_(2013)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-cay-johnston/the-fine-print/if-immortal-amoral

## More from this book

> [C]lassical "corporations"... existed not for profit but in service of the state. ...A key tenet ...has changed since ancient times... If a business fails, the chief executive does not have to become a slave to the bank... Corporations... have inverted the Roman equation: ...the state serves them.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-cay-johnston/the-fine-print/c-lassical-corporations-existed.md)

> The only real risk of competition arose when some local governments favored the idea of building a municipal telephone, cable television and Internet access system that would be faster and cheaper. The industry responded like sharks, determined to do in the opposition and protect their predatory position.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-cay-johnston/the-fine-print/the-only-real.md)

> Legislatures passed these laws, presidents and governors signed them and the courts have endorsed them. In many cases they effectively gut state constitutional provisions and laws banning gifts to business.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-cay-johnston/the-fine-print/legislatures-passed-these.md)