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1. we do not charter corporations so that they may chase profits, we charter them because we believe that without limited liability, certain things that we as a
by PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
1. we do not charter corporations so that they may chase profits, we charter them because we believe that without limited liability, certain things that we as a society (or as a monarch) want done will not happen. If that was not the case, we would not have corporations at all, simply partnerships between various sized groups of individuals who decided to risk their personal fortune (in all senses) on some venture that could not be accomplished alone.
2. in situations of monopoly or close to it, corporations do in fact indulge in central planning for an entire economy. You may choose to put your faith in the idea that their chasing profits mean that their decisions will be the ones we would make as a society, but there's no inherent reason for this to be true. There are often multiple pathways to the same profit, with different side effects and different levels of organizational commitment; as a society we might prefer a corporation to pick one route, but it picks the other.
- monero-xmr 4y agoI used corporation but I meant private enterprise - the legal mechanism is unimportant. Private entities are specifically exempted from political manipulation. Government makes the rules, but a private entity (barring a few special cases) is free to operate within the law without a bureaucrat embedded in the office. Therefore the society might want a corporation to make some decision, but generally it can’t force them to by direct action.
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y agoOn the contrary, the legal mechanism is vitally important. If every venture that involved gathering together a group of people to bring sufficient capital, labor and IP to bear on a problem or opportunity ALSO faced the personal ruin of its participants should it fail or cause injury or death or despoilment, it would be extremely difficult to convince such organizations to form. It is vitally important for such organizations to have limited liability for their participants i.e. for society to indemnify the participants against potential harmful outcomes from their endeavor.