Why is big business considered evil by the left but big government is considered wonderful?

Lonesome Polecat: Why is big business considered evil by the left but big government is considered wonderful?
Big business produces a product, creates job and creates wealth. Big government creates large inefficient agencies, gobbles up wealth, creates waste and is corrupt. Big business needs to be watched and when found corrupt the corrupt need to go to jail. Small business is just as corrupt as big business. It just doesn’t make the national news.

So why is big business demonized by the left but big government loved? Our founding fathers didn’t trust government at all so why does the left love it?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Big Lib -ertarian
I am truly hoping you get some decent answers to this question that can lend some logic to that position. It reeks of cognitive dissonance to me and always has.

Answer by Ken
Haven’t you been reading? 30% interest rates, insurance “rescission” (where you were covered but then denied), hospitals billing $ 7 for an aspirin – there is every reason to accuse Big Business of abuse.

That’s why.

At one time in this country, there was a general attitude of fairness in business. It was an unwritten code of morality and those who violated were exposed, humiliated and shunned. Now, business is as predatory as possible. Industries have adopted the credo, “Greed is good.” Banks, credit cards, mortgage companies, insurance companies, for-profit hospitals, all try to get every nickel they can from the people who are least able to protect themselves. It’s as though all of American Business has been re-trained by a sleazy, fast-talking used car salesman. Never give a sucker an even break. It’s unrestrained greed and it’s as ugly as sin.

Answer by d f
communist culture

Answer by Sahara
I know it. This is the message that gets out. I think liberals are really after those unethical companies that will cut corners in anyway they can – whether they need to or not. I really think it’s the bad apples that cause problems for the good apples.

Government can work if you have people that believe in what they are doing. Money is not the sole attractor.

It would be so great if you could at least be real and that could make us more flexible and able to compromise to get to a better place for most, at least.

Answer by Missouri Patriot
Because most of the left is on welfare!

Answer by dude
Its not so much that the left considers all big business evil, as there is – well, was – a general wariness against the possibility for major corporations to take advantage of the little guy. Of course now it’s apparently all well and good to just hand billions in taxpayer money to wall street without thinking that maybe the execs would just pocket it. Which they did.

Answer by Rinkydink
The left perceive the Government as being responsible for their care and big business as the enemy. Little do they realize if it wasn’t for big business succeeding, their benefits would not be as good as they are. The Government doesn’t make any profits, they tax those who succeed to pay the bills.

Answer by Tom W
Its called hypocrisy and even though liberals (that does not mean Dems, it means liberals) are in love with creating hate groups like business or the military to focus the weakminded on. The free market means that we don’t mess with it, and business succeeds or fails on efficiency. Only when government gets involved and starts passing out tax money, does the free market fail. We have had 11 major recessions since the Depression, they come and they go, they must. Leave it alone and it will function. 18-24 months for most recessions to turn around UNLESS someone starts messing with the process, like Obama who uses the recession like Bush used terorrism to divert our attention, to mobilize the ignorant and to rob us.

Answer by gosam777
Good question. It’s supposedly because liberals are all for the poor and middle class. Democrats have controlled Congress over 3 years, total control over Congress and the White House over a full year. Yet, Corporation Boulevard and Wall Street have emerged from the recession and are flying high, while unemployment soars, and Main Street bears the brunt.

The liberals in power have made it clear through their actions, Goldman-Sachs is not going to bed hungry tonight, in spite of their rape and pillage of AIG. It serously make you wonder when the gullible groupies are going to wake up and see the Democrats con and use their constituents, they same way Republicans used theirs. The agendas and propaganda may be different, but they both are leading us to the same destination.

Answer by Annou Nimmis
It would be an exaggeration to say that I consider big government wonderful. I do think, though, that a strong and active democratic government is better than any alternative.

For me, it is because corporations put the greed of their shareholders ahead of all other considerations, including the well being of their communities, customers or employees. Indeed, they are designed and legally required to do so.

And, contrary to what you say, they cannot be held accountable. It is extremely rare for the executive of a large corporation to go to jail for the actions of the corporations they control. That’s because, legally speaking, it is the corporation which is to blame, not the executive. You can’t put a corporation in jail. The really large ones you can’t even punish in any significant way, because they are ‘too big to fail’. Finally, you have no say in what a corporation in your community does. They are accountable only to the shareholders.

The government is at least accountable to the voters, and they at least are suppose to consider factors other than greed. The government can be corrupted, it’s true. Usually government is corrupt to the *exact* extent that it is influenced by corporations. But you have a better chance of getting some good out of corporations if the government is watching them than you would without the government. If a corporation decides to dump poison in your water supply because it is the cheapest way to get rid of it, who is going to protect you but the government? Nobody! An how is it going to protect you if it doesn’t have the power and resources to do so?

And, by the way, if a corporation can get away with dumping poison in the water supply, they absolutely *must* do it. The interest of the share holders always must come first.

And, having worked in the corporate world most of my adult life, I can tell you that corporations are just as capable of being inefficient and creating waste as any government.