As I've noted elsewhere:
Private corporations acting in quasi-government ways is risky at best and terrifying at worst. While some of the checks & balances in civil+legal society have been broken, many are still there and there are repercussions when they're broken.
A corporation doesn't have the same mechanisms - public rules (aka laws), processes, appeals, accountability, etc, etc - built in and there's limited recourse when their definition of "right" and others' conflicts.
Based on this new assumed role, it's begging for more government regulation. And unfortunately, it makes sense for governments to say "as you take a more active role in society, you need more public oversight."
IMO if companies were structured more democratically (co-ops) you wouldn't need as much regulation (long view taken by workers more often than short term profit), and therefore smaller government.
Win - win.
I agree with this. I wonder what prevents there from being more co-ops in diverse industries? Capital requirements? In banking there are credit unions. I wonder what the tech equivalent of credit unions look like.
Also, there's a significant tax advantage for shareholders (long-term capital gains) vs. income you receive as a worker.