The purpose of the article is to ask if our mistrust in corporations is proportional to corporate misbehavior, compared to government or individual behavior. I am suggesting a "follow the money" approach, arguing that if someone offers money to get something done (build a car, drop a bomb) they share responsibility when that thing happens. This is the way the law works; you can't hire a hitman and then say you are innocent because you didn't pull the trigger.

You mention corporate espionage, corporate sabotage, and hostile takeovers. Who is the victim of these practices? Most directly, other corporations. If you are hostile toward corporations, you might welcome these practices. I don't worry about them very much. Walmart destroyed Sears (let's say), now they see Amazon as a threat. If Walmart steals secrets about how Amazon pleases customers, perhaps with technology enabling one-click purchases, then Walmart can improve customer service by adopting those practices. Let Amazon take them to court, why should customers care?

You mention monopoly. Do you feel threatened by monopoly? Most of my spending goes to corporations, and I have a dizzying number of choices; I get lost trying to make a decision of where to shop.

Price wars, hostile takeovers, cutthroat business practices, it sounds like hell in the board room. But from the customer perspective, I see cheap diapers.

The East India Company may be a fair example of commercial abuse of power in the 1800's, but it basically was the government in India, exercised military power, and does not reflect business practices today. Can you really compare them to Google or Facebook, who make money by advertising?

I would ask if a private agency like Pinkerton is better or worse in terms of strikebreaking than similar behavior by police and military forces.

Who are the customers of Blackwater and Northrup Grumman? Ultimately, taxpayers provide the money, but not by choice. If you don't love the work they do, your quarrel is with the organizations paying them to do it.

Corporations are reviled for collecting data about customers. How do they get the data? By watching how people use their services, and sometimes asking questions. Sometimes they provide compensation for data, a "token of appreciation" for taking a survey, or providing me with free links to information on any subject I ask for. (One of your links is to a Google search -- if you don't trust corporations, why do you use one to find links? If you can't live without finding links, why not at least use one of the smaller search engines instead of the world's largest?)

If I lie to a corporation about my personal information, nothing happens. If I lie on the census, the penalty is $500. The census has a noble intent, but if I happen to believe public money won't in fact be more equitably and efficiently allocated based on my postcard, why must I be threatened to fill it out?