(February 6, 2014 at 2:52 pm)Minimalist Wrote: The first thing any businessman does is start figuring out ways to fuck over the competition. That is reality.Agreed, but without the ability to get the government to pass legislation that helps them "fuck over" the competition, they are severely restricted in what they can actually do.
(February 6, 2014 at 10:42 pm)Ryantology (╯°◊°)╯︵ ══╬ Wrote: You can make whatever distinctions you like between corporatism and the so-called free market. As far as I can tell, corporatism is a natural result of letting a market be too free. If government is not allowed to regulate, there's absolutely no effective and reliable check able to prevent big money from turning the government into an apparatus which serves primarily to further the interests of big money. The less ability government has to regulate business, the fewer obstacles there are between business from effectively becoming government.The free market means the government cannot pass any laws concerning the market. This includes regulations, but also laws which favour certain businesses. That is the opposite of what happens in a corporatocracy.
So yes, there is something that prevents "big money" from using the government to further their own interests; it is the law that prevents the government from doing this. Government enforced regulations are instead handled by consumer group regulations, whereby products are independently reviewed and consumers can make their own decisions on which companies to buy from.
This doesn't make it easier for businesses to "become government", because the government is still there, and it still enforces laws protecting the people.
