Public Corporations Are As Much (Or More) Of A Threat To Human Liberty As The Federal Government
By David Grace (www.DavidGraceAuthor.com)
I want to talk about Laws in a practical, not an ideological way.
In This Column The Word “Rules” Will Mean “Laws, Regulations & Rules”
First, instead of the unwieldy “laws, rules and regulations” let’s just use the word “Rules” to include laws, rules and regulations.
The Rules We Care About Are The Ones That Hurt Humans
Second, let’s limit this discussion to Rules that either
- Unreasonably make human beings do things they don’t want to do, or
- Unreasonably prohibit human beings from doing things they do want to do.
In other words, unreasonable rules that are bad for people.
So, if the government made a Rule that everyone who volunteered at least four hours of their time in a homeless shelter would get a $100 credit against their income tax bill, that wouldn’t be a Rule that we’re going to be concerned with because it wouldn’t force anyone do something they don’t want to do nor would it prevent anyone from doing something they do want to do.
In other words, it’s not a Rule that hurts the person affected by it.
Federal Government Rules
Third, in order to keep this discussion as simple as possible I’m going to limit the scope of the discussion of government Rules to federal government Rules.
Yes, there are city governments, county governments, regional governments, and state governments, but dealing with all those different sorts of Rules at all those different levels would make this discussion so complicated we wouldn’t get anywhere.
So, for the sake of simplicity, I’m going to limit the discussion of government Rules to:
Rules imposed by the federal government, which
- Unreasonably make people do something they don’t want to do, or
- Unreasonably prevent people from doing something they do want to do
“Rules” Includes Rules Imposed On Humans By Anyone, Not Just By The Government
Fourth, we need to include ALL the Rules that humans are subject to, not just the Rules imposed on us by the Federal government. We need to be concerned with the Rules imposed on us by everyone who has power over us, not just the government’s power over us.
In a comment to one of my columns, a reader who identified himself as a libertarian said that he was very concerned with the Rules that were imposed on people by public corporations. I was impressed that he recognized that anyone who exercises power over us, anyone who imposes their Rules on us, is able to unreasonably limit our freedom or take our money.
This is an area where most libertarians, socialists, etc. really miss the boat. Most of them have total tunnel vision and they’re only concerned with the Rules imposed by the government while totally ignoring how our freedom can be and often is unreasonably curtailed by Rules imposed on us by non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
What’s Important Is The End Result
When someone points a gun at you and says, “Stand over there and keep your mouth shut” and then they shoot you, it doesn’t matter to you very much if the person giving you the order is a cop or a gang-banger.
From your self-interested, personal, point of view, it doesn’t matter who threw the bullet at you. The crucial fact is that you got shot!
It doesn’t matter all that much who is unreasonably, unfairly, making us do something we don’t want to do or who is keeping us from doing something we do want to do.
Far more important than who imposes an unreasonable Rule on us is that the Rule is imposed on us.
Who Has The Most Power Over Human Beings?
As a human being, who exercises the most power over you most often?
For most people, the answer is: Your employer.
- How much will you be paid?
- Will you get overtime?
- Will you have to arrive early or stay late?
- Must you pay for your own tools or uniforms?
- When can you take a break?
- Will you get sick pay, or paid vacation days?
- What can and can’t you do on the job?
- What rules does your employer enforce about what you can and can’t do when not at work?
- Can your boss demand sexual favors in exchange for your continued employment?
- Can you be fired (or not hired) because of your race, gender or religion?
Some employers have decreed that employees can’t smoke or drink, ever. Some have imposed other health or religious edicts.
Employers have massive power over their employees EVERY DAY! When it comes to work, unchecked employers make all the Rules.
Who else most often has power over human beings?
Banks, insurance companies, medical-care providers, pharmaceutical companies, communications companies, educational institutions, sellers of vital goods and services, etc.
Your bank imposes all kinds of Rules on you. When you must pay a bill, when you will owe a late fee, what you must do to get a loan or keep a credit card or bank account. Think for a moment about all the Rules your bank subjects you to and how little power you have to resist them.
Now think about all the Rules your homeowner’s insurance company, auto insurance company, and medical insurance company impose on you. What they will cover and what they won’t. If they will even sell you a policy. What you have to pay and when you have to pay it. The procedures and paperwork you must follow. What extra fees and charges you will be subjected to.
How about the airlines? Lots of Rules. You can bring this bag but not that bag. You can have this seat at this size but not that size. What you get and don’t get if they lose your luggage or break your stuff.
Go down the list of every big company you deal with and think about all the Rules they dictate to you about what you’re going to get and not get, what you’re going to have to pay, the fees and penalties you will be subject to.
Think about all the Rules that schools impose on students.
It doesn’t matter whether a Rule is imposed on you by a government-run school or a private school. The effect of the Rule on you is the same, namely, that your liberty is restricted by the Rule.
When you think about it, the vast majority of the Rules that are imposed on people, on human beings, most of the time are imposed by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
Sure, the federal government imposes Rules on humans relating to the calculation and payment of taxes. You have to file tax returns and pay taxes.
And the Feds have a lengthy list of criminal Rules that humans have to obey — no wire fraud, bank robbery, child porn, kidnapping across state lines, etc.
But for most of us these federal criminal statutes do not affect our lives at all.
On the other hand we are forced to bend to the Rules imposed on us by our employer, bank, insurance company, phone company, utility company, medical provider, etc. every single day.
The biggest and most frequent unreasonable limitations on our personal liberty as human beings come from Rules imposed on us by NGOs.
The biggest restraint on the Rules that are imposed on us by NGOs, the greatest protection that we get from Big Corporate Rules comes from the Rules that the Federal government imposes on those same banks, insurance companies, airlines, phone companies, and employers.
The reason that your bank can’t make a Rule that you have to pay a $100 late fee when you miss a $25 credit card payment is that the Federal government tells them that they can’t impose that Rule on you.
The reason that United Airlines can’t keep you prisoner on one of their planes on a runway for ten hours is that the Federal government tells them that they can’t impose that Rule on you.
The reason that Blue Cross can’t refuse to sell you insurance even though you have a pre-existing condition is that the feds tell them that they cannot impose that Rule on you.
Some people think that the world works like this, but this is not true.
No, it actually works like this:
The feds impose Rules on non-human organizations (NGOs) which Rules reduce the Rules the NGOs can impose on human beings.
The feds tell your employer that it must pay overtime, that it must provide a safe workplace, that you cannot be physically punished for on-the-job mistakes, that your pay cannot be docked to reimburse the employer for your supposed work mistakes, that you cannot be denied a job because of your race, gender or religion, that you must be paid on time, that your employer cannot demand sexual favors in exchange for you keeping your job, etc.
Most of the Rules that the feds impose on the corporation that employs you (or sells stuff to you) prevent that corporation from taking away your freedom with its own contrary, unreasonable, or onerous Rules.
The people who don’t understand that government Rules on corporations reduce the corporations’ Rules on humans want things to work like this:
The thing we have to remember is that we are humans which means we should be concerned with human liberty and reducing the number of Rules that we as humans are subject to.
For almost all of you, your employer is not human. Wells Fargo is not human. General Motors is not human. United Airlines is not human. McDonalds is not human. Walmart is not human.
We ALWAYS need to remember that corporations are non-human, artificial life forms.
Here is a short excerpt from my column: Do Intelligent Entities — Artificial Constructs — Already Exist, And, If So, What Are They Like?
Forget all the logos, the spokesmen/women, the jingles, the attempts to anthropomorphize this Artificial Construct. There is no real Jack running Jack In The Box.
You can put a lovely skin on a Terminator-type robot. You can make that robot into an apparently handsome man or beautiful woman, but that’s just a disguise.
Beneath that phony skin is a machine with all the empathy and ethics of Ted Bundy or the BTK Killer.
Publicly-held corporations are not your friends. They are not there to help you. They are not on your side. Their only purpose is to take as much of your money as they can get.
If the corporation’s customers’ or employees’ well-being gets in the way of it making substantially more money, it will grind those customers and employees into the dirt without a second thought or even a first one.
You can clothe Wells Fargo, Carrier, Volkswagen, British Petroleum, Pfizer or General Motors with any catchy tunes, air-brushed actors, clever slogans, and empty promises you like, but underneath the paint and makeup they are just soul-less, ethic-less, rapacious, non-human Artificial Constructs whose one and only goal on this earth is to do anything that will get them more money without their getting caught breaking the law.
The fact is that the more Rules the government imposes on McDonalds the fewer Rules McDonalds is able to impose on its human employees and customers.
The fewer Rules the government imposes on Allstate, the more Rules Allstate gets to impose on the humans it insures and whose losses are supposed to be covered by that insurance.
Turncoats To The Human Race
Suppose a space ship landed in Washington and a big robot walked out. The robot told us that it was a member of a society composed of millions of artificially intelligent, soul-less robots who were going to take over the earth and that from now on they would run things however they wanted.
Most people would oppose that plan, but some would turn traitor to the human race and side with the robots. These turncoats would volunteer to serve their new alien, robot masters and help them subjugate human beings.
That’s how I look at humans who pledge themselves to enabling insurance companies, banks, airlines, communications companies, Big Pharma and other public corporations to impose whatever Rules they want on human beings.
Like the humans who would betray humanity in favor of their new robot overlords, as far as I’m concerned these “do not restrain the public corporations” people have chosen to betray humanity in favor of their inhuman, corporate overlords.
“No,” they scream, “We’re not going to let you tell Wells Fargo that it can’t levy a $50 late fee on humans. We’re not going to let you tell United Airlines that it cannot keep humans locked on a plane on the runway for ten hours. We’re not going to let you tell Allstate that it must pay all valid claims within a reasonable period of time. We want freedom for the inhuman corporate overlords to do to humans whatever they can get away with.”
This Is All About People
I’m concerned with the rights and liberty of human beings not non-human, artificial entities. For me, only benefits and detriments to actual humans matter.
Rules imposed on artificial entities only matter to the extent that those Rules will have a ripple effect that hurts humans more than they help humans. If a Rule restricts a non-human without secondary effects that materially hurt humans, I don’t care.
What Is A Bad Theory?
A bad theory is one that does not accurately describe how the real world works.
For example, if someone says, “For this reason and that reason, the earth is flat” that’s a bad theory because it does not accurately describe the shape of the earth.
Here are a few more:
“Women are intellectually inferior to men.” Bad theory because it is factually false.
“Kings are entitled to rule because they are chosen by God.” Bad theory because it is factually false.
Some people will tell you that “Most if not all non-union employees can protect themselves from unreasonable Rules imposed by their employers.” That’s a bad theory because it is factually false.
Some people will tell you that “Government rules imposed on corporations are bad for people because they always make products and services more expensive.” That’s a bad theory because it’s factually false for many reasons, a couple of which are:
- It falsely assumes that most or all the the costs saved by not having to comply with the Rule will be passed along to the customers;
- It falsely assumes that any cost saving that might be passed along is more valuable to the customer than the liberty that the employee or the customer loses from the imposition of the corporation’s Rules.
My Request
To those of you who have pledged your allegiance to the cause of the soul-less, inhuman corporations instead of the freedom and prosperity of human beings, I would ask that you abandon your dedication to these nonhuman entities and instead work to increase the liberty of the human beings who must deal with those corporations.
I ask you to say “No” to increasing the power of Wells Fargo, Mylan, Carrier, and the rest of these non-human entities and “Yes” to increasing the power, liberty and prosperity of their human employees and customers.
–David Grace (www.DavidGraceAuthor.com)
