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A private sector business isn't gonna send thugs with guns to forcibly shut down your business and put you in a cage after being too incompetent to take your mo

A private sector business isn't gonna send thugs with guns to forcibly shut down your business and put you in a cage after being too incompetent to take your money, they're just gonna terminate your service and/or sue you. Which is worse is a matter of preference.

erdos4d 5y ago
This exactly.
AlotOfReading 5y ago
Debt collectors may not be able to put you in jail, but 'thugs with guns' can be a pretty apt description otherwise.
emn13 5y ago
You are of course entirely correct (well, outside of the mob, which is probably a realistic factor for quite a bit of business, but kind of out of scope for "rules"). However, the essence of the matter isn't just about putting you in a cage - it's about excessive and capricious penalties with no real recourse. And those exist aplenty in the private sector. Nor do all laws broken necessarily equate to imprisonment. In practice, for perceived infractions against whatever rules the powerful organization has, private organizations are pretty ruthless up to but not quite reaching imprisonment. Pseudo-monopolists cutting service, or hefty financial penalties up to and including losing pretty much everything, holding your data hostage: that's all fair game. These two things aren't the same; but I do think they're both bad and scary enough to warrant not just concern, but in an ideal world, rules. You know, for example, constraints for government, and licensing rules for business.
- unholythree 5y ago
  I think as a corollary it’s important to remember that “A private sector business isn't gonna send thugs with guns” wasn’t always true. Private police pushing people around was common enough in the late 19th and early 20th century. It was laws and government intervention that stopped that.
jmcqk6 5y ago
>A private sector business isn't gonna send thugs with guns to forcibly shut down your business and put you in a cage after being too incompetent to take your money, they're just gonna terminate your service and/or sue you. Historically speaking this is completely false. Even now you can find individual examples of businesses doing things like this, especially in places with little rule of law. There is nothing magical about businesses - they are made up of the same people that make up governments. Those people have the same power trips regardless of their positions.

erdos4d 5y ago

This exactly.

AlotOfReading 5y ago

Debt collectors may not be able to put you in jail, but 'thugs with guns' can be a pretty apt description otherwise.

emn13 5y ago

You are of course entirely correct (well, outside of the mob, which is probably a realistic factor for quite a bit of business, but kind of out of scope for "rules"). However, the essence of the matter isn't just about putting you in a cage - it's about excessive and capricious penalties with no real recourse. And those exist aplenty in the private sector. Nor do all laws broken necessarily equate to imprisonment. In practice, for perceived infractions against whatever rules the powerful organization has, private organizations are pretty ruthless up to but not quite reaching imprisonment. Pseudo-monopolists cutting service, or hefty financial penalties up to and including losing pretty much everything, holding your data hostage: that's all fair game. These two things aren't the same; but I do think they're both bad and scary enough to warrant not just concern, but in an ideal world, rules. You know, for example, constraints for government, and licensing rules for business.

unholythree 5y ago
I think as a corollary it’s important to remember that “A private sector business isn't gonna send thugs with guns” wasn’t always true. Private police pushing people around was common enough in the late 19th and early 20th century. It was laws and government intervention that stopped that.

jmcqk6 5y ago

>A private sector business isn't gonna send thugs with guns to forcibly shut down your business and put you in a cage after being too incompetent to take your money, they're just gonna terminate your service and/or sue you. Historically speaking this is completely false. Even now you can find individual examples of businesses doing things like this, especially in places with little rule of law. There is nothing magical about businesses - they are made up of the same people that make up governments. Those people have the same power trips regardless of their positions.