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Comment by fullsend | Hacker News Reader

Competing and yet also colluding? Corporations want to fulfill consumer or shareholder desires in exchange for money. The CCP wants to dominate you and determine your way of life. They want to tell you what you’re allowed to desire. It’s very different.

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I would not say that corporations in America are characterized by merely fulfilling consumer desires, rather creating consumer desires—often without precedent—and then fulfilling those desires that were created. As can be seen by the sheer quantity and market size of advertisement (which is the business of manufacturing desire itself).

It appears that we can be encouraged to desire almost anything, or at least an incredible amount of things…

>wants to dominate you and determine your way of life. They want to tell you what you’re allowed to desire.

I'd like to note that corporations do want the same thing. I believe all power structures converge to this, no matter their origins - an abusive partner, a out of control corporation, a totalitarian government, a fanatic cult, law enforcement when given too much power.

So what remains? Forces that keep the system in balance, "checks and balances" as they say. I don't know the recipe and I don't believe anyone does. What I'd just like to point out is that corporations, as they are, are not exempt from abuses of power.

Oligarchies. See the Canadian telecom and CRTC situation. It looks like competition from the outside, but really it's collusion with false attempts at competition.

The result speaks for itself. The desire to dominate is identical, there's just more or less legal or culturally acceptable ways to going about getting there.

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