http://www.cato-unbound.org/2006/10/06/the-editors/best-of-the-blogs-state-power-and-corporate-power/ Big Ideas for a Better World Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:24:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 http://www.cato-unbound.org/2006/10/06/the-editors/best-of-the-blogs-state-power-and-corporate-power/comment-page-1/#comment-5139 Positive Liberty » Blog Archive » Libertarians and Democrats Fri, 06 Oct 2006 16:48:27 +0000 http://www.cato-unbound.org/?p=302#comment-5139 [...] So should we join with Democrats? No. Although the Republican party has flagrantly betrayed its vows to the free market time and time and time again, the Democrats have shown no such infidelity to their anti-market principles. They continue to be wedded to the basic notion that society must be changed by government ub a perverse attempt to liberate individuals—an error that conflates two basically different definitions of “power”: governmental power (which is based on force) and economic power (which is not). So long as they continue confusing these two different principles, modern liberals cannot be more effective voices for liberty. Kos himself falls into this trap even while trying to woo libertarians—when he says that corporations are “too powerful.” Many other blogs have called him out on this basic error. Corporate power, insofar as it is a genuine concern, always proceeds from government, through some corporate-government alliance. Eminent domain abuse is only the most obvious example of that. Insofar as it is not a genuine concern, corporate “power” proceeds only from the wealth of a corporation, which is a function of the voluntary transactions in the marketplace. Antitrust persections, for example, are often aimed at businesses that have exercised no coercion at all, but are being attacked for their very “bigness,” which is simply a result of that business’ success at satisfying consumers. [...] [...] So should we join with Democrats? No. Although the Republican party has flagrantly betrayed its vows to the free market time and time and time again, the Democrats have shown no such infidelity to their anti-market principles. They continue to be wedded to the basic notion that society must be changed by government ub a perverse attempt to liberate individuals—an error that conflates two basically different definitions of “power”: governmental power (which is based on force) and economic power (which is not). So long as they continue confusing these two different principles, modern liberals cannot be more effective voices for liberty. Kos himself falls into this trap even while trying to woo libertarians—when he says that corporations are “too powerful.” Many other blogs have called him out on this basic error. Corporate power, insofar as it is a genuine concern, always proceeds from government, through some corporate-government alliance. Eminent domain abuse is only the most obvious example of that. Insofar as it is not a genuine concern, corporate “power” proceeds only from the wealth of a corporation, which is a function of the voluntary transactions in the marketplace. Antitrust persections, for example, are often aimed at businesses that have exercised no coercion at all, but are being attacked for their very “bigness,” which is simply a result of that business’ success at satisfying consumers. [...]

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