system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELIF: What does the phrase "corporations are people" mean and why is it significant?
gpt
"Corporations are people" is a legal fiction (that's not a derogatory term, it's just the name we use for the concept).  What that means is that it's something that isn't technically true, but legally we pretend it's true because it makes things easier.  We do this so that we can apply existing laws to new scenarios that may not have existed when the original laws were created.  We allow corporations to "be people" legally so we can treat that as such for the purpose of enforcing contracts, and so that they can sue and be sued as if the were a person.  More recently corporate personhood has been a political issue because of recent court cases involving corporations rights with respect to political speech.