Many who oppose individual liberty and free exchange levy the common charge that big corporations are necessarily exploitive of both consumers and workers. I can’t tell you how many times, even in polite company, I listen to people argue how evil Exxon is because they earned over $10 billion during the last fiscal year (over $1,300 per second!!!). Let’s take this as truth for the moment – that profits are directly proportional to the degree of exploitation.
Permit me to ask two simple questions.
I made some nice capital gains in emerging markets last year….did I somehow exploit the firms whose shares I bought (in the secondary market, natch)? I must have exploited the guy who sold me the shares in the first place when I forced him into the transaction