[peritonlogon]

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OK, let's just dispense with the BS analogies, then. The difference is that market power is obtained through voluntary, mutually-beneficial transactions and coercive power is obtained through violence (or the threat thereof). Power is not the problem. Coercion is.

If you dislike the fact that people often trade market power for political power, the solution should be obvious. If you discovered that people often trade shiny metal disks for violent favors, would you believe that banning shiny metal disks (or limiting people's ability to use them for trade) will stop the sale of violent favors?

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as I said before, I haven't expressed an opinion as to what should be limited... frankly I don't think limiting either would matter much. The purpose of my comments was expansive not argumentative. "Mutually- beneficial transactions" does indeed sound nice. But, this is really where Economic theory shows itself to be an idealization, and quite incomplete. For some reason Economics has received the credibility of a hard science where it really doesn't deserve it. It ought to be considered, just like all of its fellow social sciences, as a young science that deals with a small part of man's manifold nature.

"Governement" "Business" "Not-for Profit Organizations" are the 3 most common means of allocating resources and power. Government and Business cannot opperate without one another. When Businesses opperate without a strong Govenment to hold them in check, you have things like US steal in Gary Indiana or Walmart's exploitation of US workers and the US Federal Government's entitlement programs, or less frequently, the consolidation of power through monopolies. When Governments run amuck you have eastern Europe for most of this past century. Whether you blame the monopolies on the government or on the businesses is largely irrelevant since, either way it is the government not doing it's job, which, in this case, is to limit the power of business. There is a collusion, and both sides are colluding. And the fact that no poster has yet come up with a Monopoly that became a monopoly without the help of a Government doesn't imply that they are the product of governments at all, only that those who have built monopolies know how to use both hands.

The solution to the abuses of business and government in all their kind is not less governemt or less business. It is more transparency and a bigger democratic will. Information + people giving a crap + a willinginess to take action will have the biggest affect on these abuses.

To think that market power, and the private sector in general is based on "voluntary, mutually-benefical transactions" is naive. Read about US Steal and the developement of the EPA.