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All bank robbers are human. That doesn't mean all humans are bank robbers.
[/ QUOTE ] The people protesting the power of corporations (your own images, kindly provided) were not protesting against monopolies; they were smashing the windows of Starbucks because they disagree with what they do as a corporate entity, in impunity.
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Me too! But regardless, this makes no difference. We weren't talking about their motivation, just a goal - in this case, the removal of legal protections corporations enjoy. I'm all for getting rid of that.
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So, plenty clear : Not all corporations are monopolies; most corporations, if not every one of 'em, are hated by
anti-capitalists, i.e. people who will stone you if you start going on about yer "free market"!..
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Whatever. There are people who oppose US action in Iraq because they like peace, and there are those who oppose US action in Iraq because they're pulling for the other side. But they both oppose US action in Iraq.
Are you going to make a point, or are you just riffing?
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I have a
monopoly on my labor. I am not incorporated.
[/ QUOTE ]That is not a monopoly - and you (should) know it.
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What is it, then? I have exclusive control over that resource. What is a monopoly?
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You accuse me of "moving the goalposts" and now you change the
meaning of the very word on me!
Let me guess -- you are also a walking
monopsony. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
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I'm not an exclusive buyer of anything. I *might* be the only one willing to entertain your ramblings, but I'm not buying them.
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Corporations (as we know and love them) do not exist in a free market.
[/ QUOTE ]Then I guess we do not have a free market anywhere in the world
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We don't. Has anyone actually claimed that we do?
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except in the fevered imagination of some Austrian aficionados of spherical cows and their stubborn acolytes.
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Well, you were right. Then you had to keep talking. You just cant' stop, can you? Plenty of people can imagine a free market. Your textbooks are full of examples. Most of them are not written by Austrians.
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I've claimed that monopolies (in a meaningful sense) are unachievable without state intervention.
[/ QUOTE ]You mean that, without
laws, there would never be a commercial transaction between individuals without starting from zero every time. No laws, no rules, no regulations, no ..monopolies.
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Your favorite strawman. Debunked, shredded, burned at the stake thousands of times, but you keep rebuilding it.
Yes, without the state, people will have to rediscover fire every morning. They will have to invent a telephone from scratch before every phone call. They will have to grown their own wheat, mill their own flour, bake their own bread.
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I've also claimed that it's possible to achieve very high market share in a free market (theoretically 100% is possible) but the only way to do so (without using coercive force, of course) is by actually serving customers better than anyone else can.
[/ QUOTE ]And this will be done without forming a corporation but by acting as a lone individual, who has mastered some sort of far-reaching, persistent, competitive advantage?
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False dichotomy 101. Did you know that cooperation, division of labor, all of that good stuff is possible without the legal construct we know as the US-style corporation?
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Why am I moving the goalposts?
[/ QUOTE ] Your original statement didn't specify any "significant percentage" criteria.
[/ QUOTE ] I cannot clarify something without "moving the goalposts"?? Look like you have a problem when your opposite number does not take the BS lying down. Some anarchist.
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I have to agree, you're not "taking" any BS, you're shipping it out. In quantity.
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Did you ever "elect" such a thing?
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But I do not agitate against this situation,
[/ QUOTE ]So *you* don't mind, so it's OK to impose upon everyone else.
[/ QUOTE ] No, pay attention now: I did not vote for it, but I tacitly agreed to it. Moreover, I did NOT impose it on anyone else.
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You pay attention. I didn't say YOU imposed it. I asked if you thought it was OK for it to be imposed.
Reminder: We've already established that you were being untruthful when you said people elect this stuff.
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Those who have elected to participate in such a tyrannical group of people tacitly accept the situation, again, by not doing anything about it.
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Right. Those living under Saddam's rule were tacitly accepting. Slaves in the Confederacy were tacitly accepting.
These people were tacitly accepting their fate, since they made no move to stop it:
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You say "mob rule!", I say "Do something about it or shut up".
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This is the ultimate expression of might makes right. If you cannot overthrow those who impose upon you, it's your own fault.
Perhaps you should consider a career as a victim counsellor.
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And the only way that you could do something about it and not find the likes of me opposing you (me, the citizen, and not just the state) is by going about it in a democratic, rather than an authoritarian, one-man-rule, kinda way...
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My proposal is the ultimate opposite to authoritiarianism.
If some party is telling you what to do, and using force to coerce you to do it, what difference does it make if it is one person or 50,000 people?
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No, this was merely an expression of boredom with your sophistry and avoidance of a simple yes or no answer. You've answered, I'm
satisfied.
[/ QUOTE ]But I'm not! Don't leave me this way... Are you gonna "do something about it" or not? Are you gonna demonstrate, and smash a window or two, and throw rocks, or are you gonna sit on your ass debating about AC on the computer all day?
Yes or No?
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I don't see smashing stuff and throwing rocks as very effective techniques.
Since you're preemptively limited "doing something" to physical, violent revolt, then the answer is no.
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And if you're gonna "do something about it", please explain the non-authoritarian, non-coercive way you will achieve your aims.
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What do you think my aims are? My primary goal right now is to expose you for the clumsy intellectual con-artist you are. I am pretty satisfied with my progress so far.