Corporation as State

A couple of days back the Wall Street Journal ran a story about how Google was restricting access to its app store to apps that serve up payday loans with rates in excess of 36%. This is unquestionably a policy goal that I support, and people near and dear to me and many of our readers have fought hard to enact similar laws and put in place regulatory bodies to implement them.

In general I am supportive of investment strategies and corporate initiatives that are aligned with my values. But at the same time I have to admit that it is regrettable that the private sector is being called in to forward what is essentially the promotion of the type of public goods that are more typically thought of as being the domain of government.

Because what about if companies were pursuing "public goods" with which I disagreed? I suppose, in some sense, they often are. Chick Fil A closes on Sundays and their founders support a wide range of Christian charities with which I disagree, Cook Out plays Christian music and has Bible quotes on its soda cups, etc -- but mostly it harms me through its relentless upselling of add ons (charging for slaw, for example). Then there are all the corporate sponsors of the NRA. I guess the difference there is that it's very easy to opt out of those if you don't want to support, whereas Google's App store is pretty much where you go if you want an Android app. Though I doubt that Payday lenders are being cut out of Google search, so one could find them through a browser if not an app.

Would it be preferable if government entities focused on public goods, while private ones tried to advance their own private aims exclusively? I suppose it's hard to legislate the distinction between public and private goals.

Certainly if a company had a true monopoly position it would be questionable to let it have too much power enacting social policies. But we're not quite there yet.

Apologies for the rambling. It happens.