Government Corruption And Private Corruption

I have heard it said that a government big enough to give you everything that you want is also big enough to take away from you everything that they have.

Of course this is in no way limited to the government; and a private sector economy that is big enough to give you everything that you want is also big enough to take away from you everything that you have.

I see no reason at all to see the government entities as being qualitatively different from private entities. Both are composed of people – whether regarded as sinful or regarded as good – and I see no reason to see one as better or worse than the other. I come from the Soviet Union, and I've also lived in America and Australia. In all cases I have heard some horror stories. However while in the Soviet Union the perpetrator was the government, in America and Australia the perpetrators were private. Brutal and incestuous parents, mafia and the gangs, corrupt entities in business, old boy networks, venal small towns, corrupt courts, were the perpetrator in America and Australia. Which means that to actually stand up for liberty and righteousness one needs to confront these entities.

That is not what we are seeing from the libertarians. They attack an entity that is easy to attack – Western governments, which are for the most part quite benign. They rightfully see potentials for corruption in governments, but they fail to see them in entities that are not the government. This then allows entities such as communities built on incest to direct the libertarians' fire against entities fighting incest under the claim that they represent government overreach. Under the rubric of fighting the government, private corruption puts the libertarians in its service.

That governments are capable of wrongdoing, everyone knows. But not everyone sees the private corruption. From the standpoint of the person being abused, it does not matter if it is the government doing it or the town old-boy network; abuse is still perpetrated. And fighting abuse in places such as America means fighting these corrupt entities, not fanning New World Order conspiracy theories or becoming fools for an incestor's lie.

So that while governments are capable of doing wrong, they are not the only entities that are capable of doing wrong. And while government is being subjected to adequate scrutiny in Western democracies, corrupt private entities are not. Which means that to truly be fighting for liberty and righteousness, one has to confront these entities.

And until they do so, libertarians have no business claiming to be defenders of freedom.