tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7305354990027001031.post5718673866347752464..comments2023-07-04T05:51:34.917-07:00Comments on Eye on Oregon: A response to this blog: big business, small business, personhoodUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7305354990027001031.post-46086604380707391182012-09-09T19:14:58.458-07:002012-09-09T19:14:58.458-07:00Laws and regulations limiting freedom are not pass...Laws and regulations limiting freedom are not passed out of spite. Usually an abuse threatening the welfare of others prompts law-making for good or ill. <br /><br />Goldman and Lehman Bros. and Royal Bank of Scotland and others are as responsible for the onslaught of new (actually old and repealed by Phil Graham and others) bank regulations.<br /><br />As pointed out, business entities large and small "are driven by the best, the worst and the mediocre." And it is those driven by the worst that are to blame for most of the laws, not "big government."<br /><br />Government has a role keeping the playing field level in "free markets" and keeping the powerful from owning the refs and setting the goal posts for their benefit. Which is why we had laws against monopolies.<br /><br />And that is a key difference between big business and small. Oregon Rep. "Slick Greg" Walden may be owned by ATT and HCA, but most small businesses cannot afford their own Congressman..<br /><br />As to whether corporations should have "personhood," jail is a disincentive for persons. But despite all the abuses we read about, all the SEC fines and settling of matters between the regulators and large corporations, far too few persons have gone to jail and not one corporation. <br /><br />If those who lied (obviously) to Congress spent a year or two behind bars, if those who sold securities to clients while betting against those same securities were convicted of fraud and did time, if all those who hide their nefarious behavior behind a corporate veil were stripped of that protection and if we had an AG willing to take them on, America would be a better place to do business.eyeonoregonnoreply@blogger.com