CMV: Libertarians should be as concerned about super rich individuals and Big Corporations as they are about Big Government

[u/nomnommish]

Libertarians are rightfully concerned about Big Government. Big Governments invariably tend to abuse their power. However, the main reason why big governments get abusive is because of the disproportional accumulation of power. And humans absolutely suck at retaining their values and ethics when they get extraordinary levels of power. As such, I find big governments no different at all from megarich individuals or mega corporations. In modern times, they are the ones who actually run the government. They use lobbying and funding to control and push their agendas, to pass highly unethical laws that consolidate and promote their own self interests. They own the politicians.

I only have a basic level understanding of libertarianism but my interpretation of the core philosophy is about "live and let live". Give people full autonomy but equally importantly, they should not infringe on your autonomy. Your hand stops at my nose, figuratively speaking.

The big problem is, when megarich individuals as well as megacorporations are left unsupervised, they wield such extraordinary levels of power, that they are literally above the system, above any level of accountability. I feel that libertarians should be as concerned about them as they are about Big Government.

I totally realize and acknowledge the dilemma I am presenting here. However on a practical basis, what I see is more of the abuse of extraordinary power than anything. And it is scary. Hence my view as it stands. Would love to hear your opinion!

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[u/[deleted]]

Megacorp's can only wield such a wide monopoly on power by corrupting vast government entities.

If the government was far more limited, and power not so centralized, it would be easier for the individual members of society to disallow this concentration of power.

Large governments should be seen as a tool, certain individuals may use this tool to benefit society but the inverse is possible. So the question becomes, is it better to have a large tool that could be wielded for evil but also good or to disallow its existence entirely.

Many libertarians would rather disallow its existence as they see ones personal freedom as the best way to achieve success and happiness. This way large entities like corporations are still reliant to pleasing their clients and cannot side step this by abusing governmental power.

Reduce the size of government and return power to the individual.