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Comment by buzzert | Hacker News Reader

How do you disarm corporations from having this power without giving it to the government?

In a democracy, the government having this power ostensibly means the people have this power. If the corporations have power beyond the reach of the government, then it's not really a democracy.

Do you really think this is the world we live in today?

The whole point of this article is about crony capitalism.

Some powers are the absolute last thing you want to have in government hands because they are so abusable. Power over publication is one of them.

That's an odd question, a democratically elected government is supposed to have the power to regulate, and they're supposed to exercise that privilege in a way that benefits their constituents - but that's a different debate.

Corporations, meanwhile, are not supposed to wield disproportionate power over the laws and regulations. Separate issues.

Indeed. Who else do you give the power to regulate companies to? There are no other options.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-regulatory_organization

Works well for the US financial sector despite claims to the contrary

Strict liability for errors.

Even if we entrust governments with enforcing this, that doesn’t mean “arming” the government with the power you’re taking away from employers (arbitrary discretion in firing people, for example) any more than trusting the government to outlaw murder is empowering it to murder

> any more than trusting the government to outlaw murder is empowering it to murder

That is precisely what happens in practice though. Referencing the thousands of people killed by police in the US every year, with little to no accountability (who is to hold them accountable?)

That does not happen in other countries, though, even though murder is just as illegal there.

Our government in general and our law enforcement specifically are very much out of control in many ways, but that is not an inherent state of affairs.

I don’t see the government as being very different than a huge corporation. I haven’t seen very much evidence to the contrary, and this isn’t just a US perspective.

No. The government, via the police, can and does kill in the name of enforcing laws. But that power is not related to the fact we’ve made killing illegal for ordinary citizens. Outlawing murder is not what gave the government the right to kill, and outlawing discretionary firings would not be what gives the government the right to fire at its discretion (if it ever claimed that right).

>without giving it to the government?

At least the [elected] government is under the responsibility of its citizens, while corporations are only responsible to their shareholders.

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