If corporations are bad, why is bigger government good? [View All]

[i_am_not_john_galt]

A serious question.

Like most here, I'm no fan of corporations. They are legally considered "persons", with the same or greater rights than you or I. They are legal constructs, soulless yet immortal, that shield individuals (management, shareholders, etc.) from true liability for their actions. They have far more economic and political power than individuals, and pretty much steamroll their way over individuals who get in their way. I would strongly favor changing the status of corporations so that they have no rights at all, nor the legal status of persons, and instead are what they originally were - free associations of individuals who come together to conduct business. An idea discussed elsewhere.

But my question is this. A government is basically a corporation with the additional powers of coercion, a corporation with the ability to deprive you of your liberty and even your life. A government has a relatively small number of people at the very top who are accountable to the electorate, but is 99.94% careerists. Governments have been responsible for the most appalling crimes against humanity in our lifetime - far surpassing even... wait for it... Haliburton!

So I've never understood how people can see the evil in giving power to corporations, but not in giving it to governments. Our founders were pretty clearly fearful of giving more power to government than absolutely necessary, giving extremely limited power to federal government, somewhat more to states, and leaving all power not specifically enumerated to individuals.

Why is it bad to give more power to corporations but OK to give it to the government?