We’re at a time of unrest in history. Many people are beginning to see firsthand how big corporations are accumulating far too much power.

Elizabeth Warren, campaigning for a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts, said the rich must remember they have a social contract with the rest of us.

“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody,” she said.

She went on to say (I paraphrase here) that when a person builds a factory, the factory’s goods are transported on roads we pay for. Hired workers were educated in public schools we pay for. The business is safe because of police and fire protection we pay for. So when a person makes big profits, that person’s social contract is to pay forward “for the next kid who comes along.”

New York Times’ Charles M. Blow frames this as “the corporate Contract With America: societal symbiosis. We create a society in which smart, hard-working people can be safe and prosper, and they in turn reinvest a fair share of that prosperity back into society for posterity. Everyone benefits. “But somewhere along the way this got lost. Greed got good. The rich wanted all of the societal benefits and none of the societal responsibilities.”

The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission 5-4 ruling gave corporations the same rights as people. They have now accumulated the same protections under the Constitution that individual citizens have, including unlimited free speech rights.

It’s a strange concept since corporations can’t act for themselves, they act through their employees. Corporations don’t need a clean environment to survive, they’re businesses. They don’t need healthy bodies, aren’t born, don’t eat, drink, breathe, feel pain, pray or die.

The 2010 Supreme Court ruling gave corporations First Amendment rights that allowed them to contribute unlimited money to political campaigns and causes. Each major presidential candidate is now being helped by at least one money group, collectively known as “Super PACs,” which have few checks and balances.

Since the Supreme Court isn’t yet willing to put an end to corporate influence on politics, a constitutional amendment to overturn the two-year-old Citizens United ruling is now being made. Occupy groups are mobilizing to establish resolutions for a constitutional amendment to abolish corporate personhood in cities and counties across America, from New York to Los Angeles.

This is not the perfect fix, however. According to Huffington Post Associate Editor Arin Greenwood, “The resolution calls on Congress to ‘enact’ the amendment (though it should be noted that Congress can’t actually enact a constitutional amendment on its own — once two-thirds of both houses vote for the amendment, then the states also have to ratify it).

“The proposed amendment would also require Congress to ‘regulate campaign finance’ and would mandate ‘public financing of public elections.’ ”

Another fix is an executive order by the White House, which was proposed in April but not mentioned much since then. The order could take place as 2012 elections move past the primaries.

Still another fix is suggested at the new site Common Cause, which has announced its Amend 2012 Campaign to put a similar measure on the ballot in all 50 states.

We have a choice. We can continue wishing it away or we can work to undo “corporate personhood.”