Would you prefer a corporatocracy? Where CEOs and the free market ran all the shots, along with maybe the national military?
I know it’s popular to hate politicians, even moreso than hating corporations so I wonder if people would rather things be run directly by big business. Since less government generally = more influence of big business and to a lesser extent religion and the military.
I think you’re presenting a false dichotomy here. I, and many other posters I know here, hate and mistrust politicians precisely because of too much corporate influence in politics.
I dislike politicians because in order to be elected to state or national office, they are more or less forced to be beholden to big money interests, whether they be corporations or powerful special interest groups. It doesn’t naturally follow that I think the answer is less government.
Have you heard of the phrase “special interests”?
I’d prefer the government and corporations be run by compassionate people whose overall concern is Civilization.
I’d also like a pony.
It is entirely possible to despise the present crop of politicians and present forms of government without being opposed to better politicians and government in general.
Of course. Google and Facebook may be invasive pricks, but their services are entirely voluntary. I chose to give personal information to those companies in return for certain services. There’s an honest to goodness real contract between us.
But that bastard Bush sent me to Iraq with no say in the matter. My tax money is used to pay for things I despise every day, again with no say. The “social contract” is no such thing. There was no meeting of minds, I didn’t sign anything, and I’m forced into participating anyway.
Certainly some corporations treat me badly without my say. Pollution, for example, ruins the environment I live in, without giving me any compensation or choice in the matter. But the government causes or encourages the most egregious aspects of corporate tyranny rather than restraining it.
I fully believe we’d be better off in general without a government, with or without corporations. Corporations would gain some power, but they’d also lose the main tool they have to shield themselves from competition and consequence. If the government fucks me over, I have to wait until the next election to maybe have a chance to vote some other asshole into office, if anybody remembers their offenses by then. If a corporation fucks me over, I’m gone that very same day. Either to a competitor, or to do without. And I don’t have to wait for a majority of the population to agree with me.
That can work if your idea of a corporation is a supermarket chain. If a gas company has just built a fracking well next to your house, you are being fucked over by a corporation with no option to walk away (well, I guess you can walk away from your house! 
).
There was a draft for the war in Iraq? I had no idea…
I joined the Army before the war. You don’t have to be drafted to be sent somewhere against your will. I think the “all volunteer Army” is bullshit, if you can’t say “this war makes no sense, I’m not going”. There were more than enough people itching to kill Iraqis, the military didn’t need to force people who didn’t agree with the war to go anyway. But that’s a topic for another thread.
I mentioned the pollution aspect already. I happen to think the government protects and encourages environmental damage far more than restraining it. We’d probably see less of it in an anarchist society, depending on how it all played out.
You think the oil companies, factories etc would be more diligent not less about taking care of their waste without regulations?
+1
I don’t hate politicians and government, per se, but I do consider myself a libertarian and I think that, in general, the government isn’t really doing the job it needs to do. The problem is, though, that while I think a utopian society could exist without a government, or corporations for that matter, we’re not a utopian society so we need to make some pragmatic decisions.
This is one of the things I like about certain types of corporations. People whine and complain about Google and Facebook privacy issues, and while there is certainly some concern that society is growing to the point where maybe these sorts of services may become ubiquitous enough so as to be essential, but they’re not there yet.
So, sure, it makes me frustrated that the government taxes me for them to spend money, not just on things I don’t want or need, but often on things I have serious ethical and moral issues with. If this were a grocery store, a gas station, a cell phone provider, or a bank, I could always take my business elsewhere.
But at the same time, like with some corporations, there just isn’t any real alternative. When it comes to businesses that rely on infrastructure, like power and utilities, like cable or telephone, etc. If I don’t like the way the business is run, I’m either stuck dealing with it, I do without, or I move. In many ways, the government really serves much more like that.
For example, if I’m upset about my tax rates, maybe I can move to another country, and maybe I can find one with a lower tax rate, but do I really want to live there? This, to me, is kind of the whole point of government, that we HAVE to share the infrastructure, the land, whatever, so everyone who does should have a say in how it is used.
And this is sort of the problem with an anarchy or corporatocracy. Sure, I’d pretty much have all the options I want for everything I want, but there will come some places where I’m stuck dealing with someone I don’t want to. Maybe I’m okay paying a bunch of road tolls to various owners to avoid paying taxes for roads I don’t use, but what if there’s a certain road where I hate how whoever owns it runs it, do I avoid it, possibly adding considerably to my daily commute, do I suck it up and deal with it, or do I move or change jobs to not have to deal with it? All those solutions suck.
And this is why, at least for now, while I prefer businesses that make sense to be private, I think we’re still in a place where some things should be owned by “the people” rather than by a private person or business. For instance, this is why the whole net neutrality thing is a big deal, because so much of the internet is privately owned, but the government still makes rules about it.
So, I think this sort of question is a false dichotomy. The idea that people are fed up with politicians doesn’t mean they necessarily want to live in a corporatocracy. I’d love to see more corporate money out of politics, with a more narrowed focus, maybe there’d be less desire for companies to interfere, and let things be handled either at a more local form of government or let private industry take over. I don’t particularly care, but I don’t want the government replaced by a corporation.
We’re already living in a Corporatocracy. Where do you think most of our tax money goes? To corporations for crap that we don’t want or need.
This is a big joke that people actually think if you just hand everything over to corporations and let them do whatever they want that things will change. The mega rich will do whatever boosts their profits, they do not care what is best for society or our country.
I understand your sentiment, but I can’t agree with it. I don’t think government sucks because we *happen *to have a sucky government. I think government sucks inherently, and always will. (Power corrupting and all that.) When good, well-intentioned people go into government for all the right reasons, they either fail miserably, or turn into crooks and liars in order to succeed.
And I agree that many corporations are in bed with the government, and that is bad all around. But getting rid of (or regulating) corporations is not the answer; getting rid of the the government will force the corporations to survive by competing for the hearts and minds of their customers, rather than by using government as their tool.
As noted by others, “firing” the government takes four years, and you only have one other choice to pick from even then. A corporation can be “fired” from your life immediately, and there are plenty of alternatives.
And yes, I am an anarchist. Why do you ask?
Big corporations and the free market are not synonymous.
Not to mention you really don’t have a choice but to pay your rent, heat, utilities, etc. Yeah sure sure you might say you can rough it and go live in the woods, but in a libertarian society all the hinterlands would be privately owned! You’ll be shot in an instant by some redneck “countering your aggression” by going to forage on their privately owned land.
And God forbid you get sick.
You’re aware that without a government the poor and middle class and by extension just about every minority would be even more disadvantaged than they are now right? Is this OK with you?
Did the United States not have a government during slavery and Jim Crow?
Yes but not a truly democratic one since blacks were denied the vote, well for slavery that is.