Wednesday, March 07, 2007 Political vs. Economic Power
Hardly a week goes by without someone complaining how the world is being run by big corporations - and how their "greed" is ruining the earth. At the root of this mindset is the belief that political power and economic power are somehow the same - and equally culpable for the state of affairs in the world today. But political and economic power are fundamentally different. Political power is the power to persuade you to do something - backed up by the threat of force if you don't. An example would be how voting is compulsory in Australia. You must turn up to vote. Whole advertising campaigns are devised to persuade you to vote, but the ultimate persuader is the state's ability to punish you by force if you don't comply. Another obvious example is taxation. Screeds of words are written on the "social responsibility" of paying your taxes. Taxmen are portrayed as people wanting to help you fulfill your public duty. But when push comes to shove, if you refuse to pay your taxes, the full force of the state descends on your doorstep to carry you away. Economic power, on the other hand, is simply the power to persuade - with no threat of force should you decline. An example would be advertising for computers. You are assailed day and night by TV and radio ads - blaring at you to buy this or that computer, and touting the various benefits of doing so. Every computer company wants your money. But guess what? They only have persuasion on their side, not guns. So, the final choice as to whether to buy or not is always yours to make. "Ah", you say, "but what about my local electricity company - whom I am forced to buy my power off?" Good question. But the better question is this: "Why am I forced to buy electricity off this particular company when I would prefer another?" Putting aside the obvious point that you are not literally forced to buy electricity as such, but can be forced to buy it from just one supplier - that raises the issue of monopolies, and how they come into existence. This is where political and economic power blend together - in a unsavoury relationship between a business and the state. When the state uses the power of force to exclude competitors from a particular market, it is granting a monopoly to a single economic player - who in turn is probably bankrolling the particular political party that granted the monopoly! There is a name for this type of "marriage made in hell" between business and government - it's called fascism. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
