Libertarians and Corporations
Thomas Allen
Most libertarians seem to place great value on artificial collectives, such as associations and corporations (except municipal corporations), and little value on natural collectives, such as biological races and ethnicities. One thing that most libertarians ignore or fail to realize is that corporations are artificial entities created by governments; therefore, they are agents of governments.
Many libertarians seem not to disapprove of private corporations spying on their “customers.” (Are the real customers, the users of the ostensible services or the recipients of the information?) After all, they are private companies. Being private companies, they will never harm any of their users by suppressing the users’ inalienable liberties.
Likewise, many libertarians seem to condone, if not approve of, private corporations collecting an inordinate amount of information on people and profiting from that information. Yet, libertarians would scream in protest if the government were collecting half this amount of information. However, few would protest if corporations collect the information and then turn it over to the government.
Also, many libertarians seem to have no concern about corporations conspiring to defame and destroy people’s reputations and livelihoods or censoring and ostracize them. After all, these corporations are private companies, and private corporations can do no evil except overtly collaborating with a government.
All libertarians object to the social credit system that the Chinese government is imposing. However, few seem to object to the social credit system being imposed in the United States because private corporations are implementing it instead of the government. Besides, private corporations only act in the best interest of their users (customers?) — even if it means closing bank accounts and denying credit to a customer because of his politics.
Likewise, few libertarians seem to object to corporations applying in the United States, the European Union’s directives to stifle free speech. Thus, they let the European Union decided what speech will be allowed in the United State. Where are the libertarians objecting to such collaboration between governments and corporations?
Furthermore, few libertarians utter any protest against the ever-growing number of corporations promoting through advertisements and by other means antilibertarian, anti-White, anti-American, statist, miscegenational agendas. After all, corporations are just like ordinary people, except that they have governmentally granted privileges that ordinary people do not have, and, therefore, should enjoy the right to say whatever they want to say.
To all of this, the typical libertarian retort is that no one has to do business with these corporations, which is true. However, these corporations have a virtual monopoly in technology, communications, and services needed to function in today’s world. One cannot forgo being a “customer” of these companies unless he is willing to live a 1950s or earlier lifestyle.
The primary difference between liberals and libertarians on these issues is that liberals object to private corporation doing these acts, but not to the government doing them. (Actually, liberals are not really objecting to corporations undertaking these actions because the leaders of these corporations are political comrades of the liberals and their worst actions are directed toward conservatives and libertarians.) Contrariwise, libertarians object to the government doing them, but not to private corporations doing them.
Corporations allow two or more individuals to associate together and gain privileges that do not belong to them as an individual, such as the potential to live eternally and limited liability, i.e., the only liability of the owners is their shares in the corporation, while the other property of its owners is placed out of reach. Because of its special governmentally granted privileges, one would think that libertarians would lead the charge to condemn corporations instead of leading the charge to defend them.
Although corporations are manmade, they are treated as a natural person. Yet, they have no soul and are without ethics or morality. Nevertheless, they can pretend to act ethically or morally for financial gain, but they rarely act ethically or morally because such action is ethical or moral per se. Moreover, like sociopaths, corporations cannot sympathize or empathize. However, they can feign such emotions when it is financially beneficial.
To this condemnation of corporations, libertarians reply that humans run corporations, which is true. However, being soulless creatures without any moral or ethical identity, they do serve to absorb the personal responsibility of moral and ethical human beings. Corporations shield shareholders (the ostensible owners) from the morality and ethics of exploiting workers in foreign countries and other immoral and unethical acts, even criminal acts. (This claim of exploitation is made by Frank Chodorov, a libertarian, who unlike most libertarian held corporations, especially international corporations, in low esteem.) Moreover, the directors cannot be charged individually for criminal acts of the corporation because they act in a collective capacity. Collectives have no moral or ethical responsibility. Thus, a corporation absolves shareholders, directors, and usually those who run the corporation (CEOs, presidents, vice presidents, etc.) from culpability, while they commit all sorts of immoral, unethical, and criminal acts in the name of the corporation.
Today, corporations are essential to imperialism and oppression. In this respect, the Soviet Union was the ultimate corporation where the state corporation owned and controlled everything.
In 1840, Condy Raguet wrote the following about corporations in his book A Treatise On Currency & Banking: “[U]nfortunately experience has given too much reason to fear, that the moral sense of corporations cannot be relied upon for the protection of the public.” Unfortunately, what Raguet wrote about corporations in 1840 is still true today. Also, unfortunately, most libertarians refuse to acknowledge this well-known fact. (Many consider Raguet to be the greatest antebellum American political economist.)
Nevertheless, many corporations are concerned with providing their entrepreneurs, investors, managers, and workers with a decent return by providing their customers excellent products and services without spying on them or pushing the globalist agenda. However, the above flaws do apply to most, if not all, multinational corporations. Unfortunately, all the flaws described above are inherent in all corporations.
Copyright © 2019 by Thomas Coley Allen.
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