Well, yes, but consider the proportionalities. Microsoft, for example, is a really huge corporation with massive domination of its markets. But I've never owned a computer that runs Windows; I've bought nothing but Macintoshes since before Windows was even on the market.
Microsoft doesn't send people into my apartment to arrest me and put me in prison for owning a Mac Mini or running OSX. They don't confiscate my Mac, or destroy it. They don't come in and force me to install Windows compatible software on it. They don't force me to pay money to support Microsoft whether I use their software or not, while leaving me free to pay extra if I want the luxury of running a different system. They don't compel me to undergo indoctrination on the superiority of Windows to other systems. Governments have the power to do things comparable to all of those. So the powers of a very powerful corporation are less than those of a fairly weak government.
In fact, when corporations set out to do abusive things, for the most part, they don't commit the big abuses themselves; rather, they subvert courts, law enforcement, and regulatory agencies to do them favors. That is, it's more efficient for corporations to subcontract the exercise of concentrated power over individuals to government, which specializes in it, than to rely on self-help.
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zvi and
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Date: 2009-06-20 05:24 am (UTC)Microsoft doesn't send people into my apartment to arrest me and put me in prison for owning a Mac Mini or running OSX. They don't confiscate my Mac, or destroy it. They don't come in and force me to install Windows compatible software on it. They don't force me to pay money to support Microsoft whether I use their software or not, while leaving me free to pay extra if I want the luxury of running a different system. They don't compel me to undergo indoctrination on the superiority of Windows to other systems. Governments have the power to do things comparable to all of those. So the powers of a very powerful corporation are less than those of a fairly weak government.
In fact, when corporations set out to do abusive things, for the most part, they don't commit the big abuses themselves; rather, they subvert courts, law enforcement, and regulatory agencies to do them favors. That is, it's more efficient for corporations to subcontract the exercise of concentrated power over individuals to government, which specializes in it, than to rely on self-help.