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: : Don: The difference is substantial. The buisness down the street isn't going to have some sturmtruppen break in my door. The government might. I don't have to buy what the buisness sells or give them money if I don't want their product. Not so with the government. : Where on Earth do you get such cosy notions from?
Don: I don't find government's near monoply on force at all cozy.
: Exxon, Shell, Chevron, BP, Mobil, Total and Dragon Oil have all funded death squads of one sort or another in the last 5 years; either off their own backs (like BP)
Don: BP?
: or in cahoots with repressive governments like that of Colombia or Nigeria.
Don: You are blaming private enterprise for the violence carried out by governments?
: Where repressive regimes use lethal force against their own people they generally use something produced by Ooerlikon, Matra Marconi, BAe, Colt, McDonnell-Douglas, Hughes and similar companies. As long as there is money to be made from death and war, companies will cater to it.
Don: Yes, companies will make what governments buy. Yet it is the government that uses the products to kill. It is interesting that communist nations--without the evils of private corporations--have also made weapons, and have exported them to places like Cuba, who in turn used them to murder and create unrest throughout Central America. But you *approve* of this violence, so it doesn't count, does it?
