Big Business (Microsoft, Wal-Mart, etc) are:
-exploited by the State?
or
-Parasites Suported by State-granted previleges?
I would like to make this a question were you can vote but I don’t know how to
This forum doesn’t have the ability to set up a poll, so I’m not sure how much attention this will get. Is a simple tally all you were interested in, or did you mean for any discussion/support to be voiced for people’s opinions?
I just want to know what’s the opinion of the majority of the people around here
You pose an interesting question. Your examples are interesting too, as I don’t think they are equivalent. To be honest, it’s not really a fair question..what is “big business”? By the two examples you give, one would assume you mean every company over a certain market cap…or a company with a certain market share. But I think that’s not a very good way to try and make an assessment…especially one of this kind.
The truth is it’s really not that simple. I would guess you’re trying to gauge whether people fit into one of two categories: “business haters, aka compassionate people” and “business apologists, aka uncaring greedy assholes who care about nothing other than the p-word. (profit)”
I think you’ll find that most people here are generally capitalists of a generally anarchist persuasion. I say that broadly because not everyone (even of a similar persuasion) fits into a neat little box. But by identifying with that ideology, it generally means that one is against aggression in all its forms…and that includes government…which includes government subsidies and government-granted privileges. I would argue that Microsoft enjoys much more of this kind of privilege, and its business by and large hinges on this privilege…so much so that I would argue a great deal (if not the majority) of the company’s success is owed to that privilege…speaking of course, of intellectual property. Not to say that Walmart doesn’t get any government favors either…virtually every company does. But some depend on it and thrive from it much more than others.
Here’s a great look at the case of Microsoft from an Austro-libertarian perspective.
Big business exploits the state. The state allows itself to be exploited and it actually feeds off it.
Businesses, big or small, don’t need a state to flourish. To the extent that one exists and imposes itself through taxes and regulation, individuals and businesses alike adapt to minimize the negative and maximize the positive consequences of such predicament. Human action: when handed lemons, make lemonade. So your question is loaded and simplistic.
Thanks for posting this.