There’s a difference, of course, though opponents of both fail to recognize it. Free markets, peaceful commerce and capitalism consist of voluntary, mutually beneficial exchange. They create wealth. They enable people to live, to live better, and to live more comfortably.

Corporations, on the other hand, are government-created entities that act in their own interest. As such, they often use government to better their advantage, most always to the detriment of free enterprise. When I defend markets and the machinery of markets, I’m not defending corporations.

I bring this up because I got the following lovely email from one Peter Sobol in response to the post two posts below. It reads:

. . . history is full of CEO’s, Marketers, Stockbrokers and Corporation doing EXACTLY these things, especially when they become too entwined with governments. This a particular problem in the 3rd world where there is lack of oversight, but it happens right here in the US and with US companies. American CEO’s have knowingly used slave labor in foreign countries. Oil companies have hired armies that have murder indigenous people because of opposition to environmental devastation. The CEO’s of german companies help prisoners and used them as slave labor during the war. And what better example than Iraq can you find for corporations sending young men to die in foolish wars. Your starry eyed naivette is staggering. Do a little googling before you repeat this sort of BS.

Of course none of what my friend Peter describes is free markets or peaceful commerce. He’s run off a list of examples where corporations have colluded with corrupt governments to exploit, enslave, murder, and commit like nastiness.

I certainly don’t approve of any of it, nor do I know of any libertarians who would. “Slavery,” by definition is incompatible with a “free market.” And any time a company becomes “too entwined with government,” I think we can rule out “capitalism” as the problem. The problem there would be a government too involved in commerce, not commerce itself.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 8th, 2005 at 10:12 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.