From: hal@finney.org
Date: Sat Sep 02 2000 - 00:08:06 MDT
Paul writes:
> Evil? Who said anything about evil? For matters of clarity lets keep the morality issue
> out of this.
Okay, although you did compare corporations to dictatorships.
> All I'm trying to do is open a can of worms that I think needs to be opened. For
> starters, when I use the word corporation I'm referring to ones large enough to influence
> public policy and legislation at both the state and federal level. Companies with a legion
> of lawyers the size of small cities.
There are other ways too that people organize into large, influential
groups. Political parties, of course, essentially own political power.
Lobbying organizations press for legislation on all kinds of issues.
Labor unions, environmental groups, single-issue interests, regional
associations, small business organizations, the list goes on.
Do you feel equally concerned about these other ways people organize?
It seems to me that it is inevitable that when people come together with
common goals, that they will gain disproportionate political influence.
A mass of people, disorganized and pulling in all different directions
at once, will be relatively less effective than an organized group.
The saving factor is that all these different groups, corporations,
unions, political pressure groups of all kinds, each have different
agendas. And they are largely competing agendas. Even within
one of these categories there will be competition. (See the
recent Wired article on business organizations supporting Napster,
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,38456,00.html.) The result
is something of a stalemate, a rough balance of power which tilts only
slightly one way or the other and provides reasonable political stability.
Hal
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