Corporations: just another branch of The State

"They are a private company..."

This is supposed to excuse any corporation's rights violation... but does it? Really?

A private company is one owned by individuals who are accountable and who will face serious consequences if they screw up and hurt somebody. They can make up any rules they want, and if part of the cost of doing business with them is that you are agreeing to submit to being sprayed with nitric acid randomly while in the store, you are free to refuse to do business with them. If you don't do business with them, they won't be getting any of your money. If they go out of business due to being stupid or evil, no stolen money will be going to bail them out. They live or die based on how they treat customers.

A corporation is, in many cases, a different critter.

A corporation has joined with The State to get some privileges and perks. The "corporation" may face consequences for screwing up and hurting someone, but the individual who made the decision probably won't. If they get big enough to feel comfortable abusing customers, you can bet they are probably "too big to fail", and in the event of massive evil and/or stupidity, they will be bailed out by their partners in The State. You can refuse to do business with them, but they will be getting some of your money no matter what.

And, to my thinking anyway, this makes it no longer a "private company", but a willing and eager partner of The State- with all its evils. And the illegitimacy that goes along with that. As such, I think of it, not as a "private company", but as a part of the State and subject to the same limits on behavior I hold the State to. (Yes, YOU and I outrank The State and are totally within our rights to hold it to certain behavior, not the backwards way statists wish the arrangement to be.)

I know lots and lots (and lots) of people disagree with me on this point.

They ask "what is the company supposed to do, stay unincorporated and miss out on the perks and privileges? Wouldn't anyone take such a thing when offered?" Maybe. I can see being robbed ("taxed") less, by "incorporating" when possible. But it doesn't absolve you of personal responsibility, no matter how The State sees it.

You have no obligation to obey rules the State makes up if they go against Rightful Liberty. And I still believe the same goes for "corporations" that willingly get in bed with the State. Sure, they get some perks, but those perks come at a price. One of those prices is that I no longer feel obligated to submit to their State-like counterfeit rules.

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