The scary part is we now have companies that are worth a billion dollars that are unlisted and have no public scrutiny. Either a billion is not a very large number to the American people today, or we believe that public scrutiny is unnecessary for large companies today. I don't think at all that Stripe is one of them, but wouldn't a billion dollar company be a powerful entity that could invest to subvert the public interest?
Beyond all Companies/Organizations are not Governments, they don't collect taxes and they are not voted into power. So they are not answerable to anyone. These are individual(s) who are investing their own time, money, and on their own risks to create wealth.
All juridical entities other than individual persons -- and this definitely includes all corporations -- are creations of government through which special privileges are given to particular individuals on the theory that by doing so some common good will be served.
http://www.forbes.com/largest-private-companies/list/#page:1...:
Large private companies are nothing new. Cargill has $136 Billion in annual revenue. What does Stripe have?
It's a valuation, not a statement of turnover. Makes a big, big difference.
And for the record I don't think a company requires more or less scrutiny because of the turnover or valuation.