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Comment by nickpp

5 years ago

Competition is what keeps private corporations well behaved. Governments are monopolies and thus unchecked.

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nickpp

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bsanr2  5 years ago

Governments are checked by the wavering legitimacy of any given representative within the government. In our system, we have a direct check on that legitimacy through elections.

Meanwhile, corporations frequently do not have to compete, having either become a monopoly or having agreed upon "standards" without which they insist solvency in their given area would be impossible (as they rake in untold riches in profit). The only check on that power is indirectly through refusing to transact with them en masse. However, as long as their credit is good, they can continue to exist and operate with impunity.

In the end, the question is of the accumulation of which currency determines who is "good" enough to run your life: political clout or money.

Franklu, people who have to be nice to me tend to do better by me than people who just happen to have a lot of money.

n4r9  5 years ago

Governments are checked by the democratic process. And competition is not working as well as it should. There are plenty of corporate monopolies, Varsity being one of the most obvious at the present time.

  • nickpp  5 years ago

    Neither is perfect but we can easily see that private competition works better by far by comparing the results: all the modern life products and services vs the mess that governments and governmental services are in various parts of the world.