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[puristlove]

How do big, scary corporations force anyone to do anything? (Beyond their lobbying the government for unfair laws, which would not be a problem in a libertarian government)

...

Sorry, I just really can't see big business as a threat to freedom, not in the way big government is...

Comments

[phoebek]

By the way, how free do you really feel? I'll tell you I don't feel all that free. Freedom is complicated.
For example, I don't know who made my clothing, but I know there is a fair chance it was slave children. Do you know how I rationalize that? *I just don't think about it.* I do not often think about my complicity in the world's oppression, because if I did I would be forced to recognize how not-free I actually feel. Not free to stop companies nobody voted for from privatizing the world's water supply. Not free to stop Coke and Pepsi from aggressively targetting their ideology... I mean, beverage... to thirsty brown people who live in places where the water is bad. Not free to stop my government from starting wars to give money to American defense companies and American inferstructure rebuilders in the countries we bomb. Not free to do anything but enjoy the peaceful apolitical hobbit existence I buy with my complicity. And I love that life -- I love my civil liberties, my personal freedoms -- so I have a lot to lose, so I would never risk it. The bargain I have struck to get my alternative American dream, where I can live a fun life: safe and comfy, doing work I love, seeing people I love.... well, it's compelling, obviously, so why think about the freedom I deny others to maintain my own safety and comfort? How free am I? It depends on how you look at it.

[puristlove]

You may not think about it, but I do. I don't rationalize my choices, I decide if they are choices I can live with. I seldom buy clothes, for instance, because of the slave children you are talking about. I have not owned a pair of name brand shoes in years. I buy environmentally safe products when possible, and don't generally buy a lot of consumer goods period. I recognize that chickens live a life of pain and misery before ending up on my plate, and come to the conclusion that I don't have a lot of compassion for a creature that can live for over a year without its head, going about it's business as if it doesn't need its brain at all. I only allow myself ten dollars a month for gas, and my next car will be a hybrid and after that an electric car. I'm careful where I make my investments, looking into the history of the companies whose stock I am considering purchasing.

And while I may not be able to directly stop water from being privatized, or nike from paying indonesian workers thirty cents a day, I can make other people aware of what's happening and organize boycotts of those companies. I can contribute to organizations working to give people in those third world countries the means to not be exploited.

So, in the sense of how I use my money, and what businesses and corporations I support, I do feel free.

But, I can't grow marijuana plants in my backyard to give to cancer patients, or hand out LSD to a group of people looking for a spiritual experience. I can't get pain medicine for my chronic pain, because the doctors are terrified of getting in trouble. I am frightened every time I speak out against the government because I'm afraid of being arrested as a terrorist. I can't decide not to pay my taxes, because I think the government doesn't know what the hell its doing and my money could do more good with a private charity.

So in that sense, I do not feel very free.