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They are two different things. The government is theoretically accountable to all citizens, and conducts orderly and regularly scheduled changes of power. Big
by Frondo 11y ago
They are two different things.
The government is theoretically accountable to all citizens, and conducts orderly and regularly scheduled changes of power.
Big businesses are theoretically accountable to their owners and no one else.
- mfringel 11y agoMore specifically, large businesses are accountable to owners with sufficiently large stakes. It's harder to buy votes in government.
- adventured 11y agoBig businesses are also accountable to the jurisdiction and laws of the nation they operate under. In the US, the federal government has universal power over corporations due to thousands of economic regulations, to go with even more powerful national powers related to the IRS, DHS, national security and justice department. To the extent a corporation's home nation has enforced laws and regulations, the corporation must operate within that framework. Try being Microsoft, raise a heavily armed militia in the US and start storming people's homes and threatening politicians, and see what happens to you. The US Government can easily destroy any big business they choose to. They can attack it from dozens of angles. They can compel compliance to programs the corporations do not agree with, which has occurred to eg Yahoo and others with NSA spying. There is still no such thing as a a big non-based corporation, one without an actual home country. There isn't a single actual example of it today.