Hacker News Reader

Of course not. If we got rid of all these laws the corporations would simply enforce terms of service on us, containing whatever they want. And then would argue that we freely entered into those terms of our own free will by being born where we were and when we were!

View on HN

> And then would argue that we freely entered into those terms of our own free will by being born where we were and when we were!

You just described what the government does.

Except the government's "TOS" are constrained by the Constitution. No such constraint on corporate TOS, particularly in the thought experiment where all laws are gone.

How would they enforce these evil TOS? They don't have the power to do so.

If we got rid of all laws that occasionally inconvenience corporations, they would certainly do have the power.

You think of Microsoft's former ability to push nonstandard browser features, I think of the East India Company's former ability to subjugate entire societies.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com