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[Maniac Craniac]

Serious question: how does one reconcile deregulation and reliance on the genius of the free market (which is really predicated on the idea of perfectly knowledgeable market participants) with government support for corporations?  The corporation, as a matter of law and policy, is a person created by the state. It is a fictive legal person vested with vast powers, including immortality and the ability to earn money while paying a significantly lower amount of taxes than a biological person. As a practical matter, the function of the corporation is to achieve things (like economies of scale, monopoly, and the ability to compel action on the part of consumers like mandating arbitration) that a biological person is incapable of doing. The corporation, in other words, exists for the sole purpose of disrupting, not supporting, the free market.  What, for instance, is limited liability, but a means of co-opting the normal recourse that a biological person has to bring suit against another biological person?  How, then, does one support both “unregulated” free markets and corporations?  To my mind, that is like saying you advocate for the harmonious mixing of vinegar and oil. Sure, tastes good on a salad (works as an abstraction disarticulated from reality), but it doesn’t actually work in the real world.

You bring up some interesting points, but it's hard to directly answer this question. If you don't mind, please allow me to become very reductive in this analogy to make some of my points. I can think of a million ways this analogy fails to hit all the marks, but I'm only limiting my response to just a few points.

Let's say, instead of a corporation, you were running a lemonade stand. You sell each cup of lemonade for $1. Out of each $1, you make a 10 cent profit. Out of each 10 cents of your profit, you pay 2 cents in self employment income tax. Congratulations, you've pocketed 8 cents!

A neighbor comments: "No, wait.... you greedy jerk! Sure you paid your own taxes, but your lemonade stand is just sitting there, making all kinds of money without having paid ITS taxes! Now, now, don't get all whiney on me- both you AND your lemonade stand have made 10 cents per cup, but only ONE of you paid your taxes. Why should your lemonade stand get tax breaks that the rest of us don't?"

Nevermind the fact that the lemonade stand was built from materials that were taxed and labor that was taxed, that all repairs and replacement parts will be taxed, that the lemons and cups and sugar and ice are taxed, that you have to pay property taxes for having your stand where you put it, and that you have to pay business licensing and registration fees to the same government that taxes you for all the other stuff.

Minutes later, a customer buys 2 cups of lemonade, and absolutely loves every sip of it, but before walking away lodges another complaint your way: "You make me sick! Taking advantage of people, like me, who are thirsty and want a cold treat on a hot day. All you ever do is TAKE, TAKE TAKE our money and never do anything for us in return."