His last statement, "But the MSM holds capitalism in contempt", maybe applies to Rocky and Bullwinkle, but certainly not any of the many all-financial shows, or a station that advertises.

And his statement:

"Business, to survive, must be a supplicant: it must work hard to please its customers, constantly adapt to meet their changing tastes, beg them to even visit the showroom to consider a purchase"

only applies to small companies, for the most part. I'm thinking about Citi issuing 30% credit cards, and the health care industry.

If you want to see how the health care insurance business operates, then watch this.

"But the MSM holds capitalism in contempt."

What was the MSM?

John,

You wrote,

"government is simply an organization to which we have granted the right to use force"

We?

Not me.

It is true that GM had no armies, no means of forcing its wishes on the people, except that it had a vast financial fortune and money is power, it buys the armies, it buys the congresscritters who supply the armies, it buys the thugs.

Paraphrasing the Rothschild that established their unimaginable wealth in banking said, "I care not who writes a nation's laws, if I control their money I control the country."

Did GM display that it had power? I would argue that yes they did. That power was magnified by combining it with the power of the other big two auto makers. The power was displayed in mustering votes in any election that concerned the auto making industry, it was displayed in that in 2009 they are still making autos that get gas mileage only marginally better than some 35 years ago.

No GM could force no one to buy their autos, but considering the gullibility of the American consumer they had the money to baffle the public with bullsh.t, and get the same effect.

People seem to forget that government is simply an organization to which we have granted the right to use force – to protect us from others who would use force upon us.

Government is an organization that grants itself authority over force. Sometimes it says that it protects us from others using force, and sometimes it even says that we grant its authority, but that's mostly a lot of bullshit.

The Feds didn't protect anyone from 9/11. It only now says that it has protected everyone from similar attacks that never occurred. That's a lot like saying that you'll pay me Tuesday for a hamburger today or that you'll reward me for some behavior you'd like me to practice years from now, after I'm dead.

Sure, I can call the armed men after I've suffered some forcible assault, and they might inflict further suffering on my attacker, assuming that they aren't the attackers themselves, but do they protect me from these assaults (or prevent them)? How would I know that?