Limited liability was a later development to corporate law and is not in any way intrinsic to a corporation. The original corporations were entities given royal charter for a specified purpose and the charter could be revoked at any time. The early American corporations were severely restricted as to what they could do, and states could revoke their charters. For example, the Supreme Court of Virginia stated in 1809 that if an applicant for a corporate charter’s “object is merely private or selfish; if it is detrimental to, or not promotive of, the public good, they have no adequate claim upon the legislature for the privileges.”
http://books.google.com/books?id=S2M2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA521&lpg=PA521&dq=object+is+merely+private+or+selfish;+if+it+is+detrimental+to,+or+not+promotive+of,+the+public+good,+they+have+no+adequate+claim+upon+the+legislature+for+the+privileges&source=bl&ots=KguHdkQrXW&sig=LaZOunn3n8ELOfGYU-zXrTWlGaw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wfccVK-lB4aqyASFxIGACw&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=object%20is%20merely%20private%20or%20selfish%3B%20if%20it%20is%20detrimental%20to%2C%20or%20not%20promotive%20of%2C%20the%20public%20good%2C%20they%20have%20no%20adequate%20claim%20upon%20the%20legislature%20for%20the%20privileges&f=false
"I am not sure what "even John McCain" has to do with anything."
The point is that even rightwing, pro-business Senators claim Apple is a tax cheat. Even the US business press does. To say otherwise is to put your position well outside the mainstream of even the ranks of conservative opinion holders.
"A simple tax system would close off the ability of politicians to exercise personal power in many of the ways that they are used to doing so."
Simple tax systems are easier to evade. A daunting array of complicated taxes makes it much harder for people to evade all of them. It would also close off a lot of popular incentive programs that middle class homeowners and such, are very attached to. Which is why Mitt Romney never specified which loopholes he would close during the 2012 race, since all of them were popular with the broad public.
Complaining about tax loopholes is a lot like complaining about earmarks. Everybody hates the general concept in theory but supports the specific examples.
"Attempting to apply psychological pathologies of individuals to collections of people is intellectually vacuous. There are a whole mess of conditions and assumptions that have to be maintained to aggregate "rational" individuals into a collective such that the rules of "rational" behavior are not violated."
Not really. Collectivities often have a unified culture, training programs, way of thinking, and process of decision-making that makes such aggregations pretty easy.
"Also, corporations are generally much better behaved than proprietorships."
I don't know where this statement comes from or how it's relevant. Do proprietorships have the same access to capital and influence that corporations do?
"Referencing Agitprop filmmakers is really not appropriate if you wish to be taken seriously."
Using the term McCarthyite term Agitprop, especially for film, is not something you want to use if you wish to be taken seriously.