Who is the Big Bad Wolf?

Earlier this week I found myself in yet another discussion over which is more trustworthy, the government or the corporations. Over the past years, this seems to be a debate I have found myself engaged in on many occasions. I have battled my side of this argument to the point of sickness and to the expense of personal relationships. Then this week, after another long verbal tennis game, I was asked the question "which lord would you rather serve"? It was then it occurred to me that after all these years that we were not even arguing the same issue. Those whom disagreed with me were debating despotism, which entity is a better suited authority, while I was arguing which one interferes less with liberty.

Knowing this, I now am able to accept that many people either expect to, or wish to be ruled. With that truth in mind I can agree that it is far easier to serve one master then many. Therefore their point of corporations being a bane to society would be accurate. Corporations try to find ways to circumvent rule of government, to seek expansion and grow their influence. In a pure free market environment, corporations are also apathetic to individual and focus on providing to the needs of society. Then when there are several competing corporations, they engage in a type of warfare in order to become the greatest power in their industry. At the same time, these same people believe government to be the source of fairness and kindness. They believe in a "benevolent tyranny" of sorts.

What is ignored is the true nature of government. First, no tyranny can be a positive force for to long. Eventually, any government will try to increase its own power over society. As government gains greater control, it too becomes apathetic to the needs of the individual, but also to the needs of the collective. The motivation becomes all about gaining total control and retaining this power. The purpose of citizens is to serve the needs of government. those who serve better are rewarded better.

Looking at these evaluations, corporations and government look very similar, why would anyone want either to rule? Quite simply, you wouldn't. Perhaps the argument should change from, "who can rule better?" to "who can we control easier?"

Most people believe that the ideology of a democratic country is to be governed by the people. With that in mind the people should retain the power and keep it from all other entities. Governments whole purpose is to rule, and therefore becomes the greatest threat to our liberties. Society must continuously work in order to keep the power of government in check. Corporations are all about profits. They must continually answer to their shareholders, the consumers that supports them and of the government. The corporate model is a much more fragile one and that makes them easier to control. There are those that believe that corporations actually control the government though lobbing, but the reality is that the government can legislate any business out of business at will, so in fact the government is in control. Two examples of this that come to mind is the energy industry and a Canadian airline called Wardair. The energy industry must petition the government for rights to produce, this usually increases the cost to create energy which is passed down to the consumer, but if the government says they can not produce (like the oil companies in the U.S.) then they are forced to look at other countries for their rights of production, or go out of business. Wardair was a profitable airline in Canada and a main competitor to the government invested Air Canada (which losses money almost every year). The Canadian government changed the industry regulations and made it no longer profitable for Wardair to compete. Thus Wardair decided to sell the company to it's competitors and no longer exists.

Since we(the citizens) are suppose to be in control of both government and the corporations, how is this achieved? Again, government is hard. Through our democracies we vote for our government representatives, so we are able to replace every few years, unfortunately our representatives are a small piece of the government. The workers that staff the departments of the government are the true creators of policy and tend to sit in position for as long as they wish. The citizenry has no say in their performance and job security. The only recourse for dissatisfaction is to elect a new representative and hope they do their job. As for the corporation, we have the choice on a daily bases on where and whom we wish to spend our money on. For example, someone doesn't like Walmart because they feel the employees don't get enough benefits, then they simply don't have to shop there. When enough people reject Walmart, the investors will step in and demand changes be made to renew consumer confidence. The corporation is force to give into the will of the public almost immediately. This is why no matter how large a company is, it makes no sense for the corporation to abuse any part of the public or public interest, while governments get away with citizen abuse almost daily.

What I find fascinating is that politicians and special interest lobbyists are the ones that make the claim against the corporations, when it is them whom wish to truly control society. In fact the corporations are a direct reflection of the needs and wants of a society and to vilify them is to vilify the general public, yet somehow we have chosen to to believe them. So back to the question, who do we trust? We need to trust ourselves the people. We need to promote self education and to reject what those whom desire power try to tell us. When we as individuals know how things work and what the truth is we won't buy what we don't need, and then we can decide who really is the big bad wolf.