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Comment by VRay | Hacker News Reader

Private companies (theoretically/ideally) don't have the power of life and death over you

But they do. Private companies have killed people with ill-made products [1], pollute our air and water [2], have purposely targeted people for harassment [3], and created drugs solely for addiction [4]. These examples only took 30 seconds of thought.

The idea that businesses (whether public or private) can't hurt me or my family is absurd.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher-Price#Rock_'n_Play_reca...

[2] https://www.consumerreports.org/water-contamination/how-frac...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay_stalking_scandal

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sackler_family#Opioid_lawsuits

Like literally, the amount of instances where the government is weighing life/death is very small, even smaller at the federal level (most death penalty cases are against state laws). If you're meaning in the 'government programs can greatly affect my quality of life', then private companies can totally do that too - through targeted advertising.

Like literally, that is the basis for state power - several iterations of "...or else" finally end with "we kill you". Private companies don't enjoy that privilege - because they don't have the power to distinguish murder from justifiable homicide.

That the government has power over you at all is what matters, not how often it exercises that power against you. Already parallel case construction is a troubling problem (given the warrantless domestic surveillance). Grant the government access to surveillance capitalism / ad tech, and now you've got another vector to launder evidence.

I'm not sure if this is satire/sarcasm. Are you comparing the power to imprison people with targeted advertising?

More broadly, a monopoly on violence.

Slightly less broadly, a monopoly on "legitimate" violence not limited to self-defense or a proportional, reciprocal response to prior violence.

If the state actually managed to monopolize all violence that would be much better than what we have in practice, with plenty of non-state violence in addition to that instigated by the state, though calling any aggressive use of violence "legitimate" would remain a travesty.

not to mention the power to imprison you.

>don't have the power of life and death over you

Actually they do. See this for just one of the many ways they have that power:

https://www.mercurynews.com/2007/12/21/teen-dies-hours-after...

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