“He who has the gold makes the rules.” There’s a lot of truth to that. Bill Gates has made a lot of new rules for us to live by – all as a trader, trading to mutual benefit – we were not forced to buy any of his products. Many people have a problem with rules being made on the free market, but no problem if the government makes the rules – and they steal the gold. It seems that if your neighbour takes half the carrots you’ve grown – that’s stealing. But if the whole neighbourhood, the whole city or the whole country votes to take half your carrots, it somehow becomes okay. The government having taken over the education system has taught us a rule – unlimited democracy. Unlimited democracy means your property and even your life are subject to a vote.
Many people think that corporations can buy government favours. And there is a lot of truth to that. (See my post on cronyism.} But what makes this possible? Suppose you own a small business and some thug keeps throwing rocks through your windows. The thug says he’ll stop throwing the rocks if you pay him not to – extortion. You decide to pay. Who’s to blame here? It could be said that you are for paying the extortionist instead of calling the police. But if the government is doing the extorting, who are you going to call?
If the government takes your profits and controls every aspect of your business, is it any wonder that businesses will try to influence legislation. They are going to try to stop legislation they see as detrimental to them, and encourage legislation that will help them. They will lobby for import duties to restrict competition. Trade organizations will actually lobby for more rules and regulations to make it more difficult for anyone to enter their trade.
If we are truly concerned about the golden rule, let’s get the gold out of the hands of the government who get their gold by extortion and allow the rules to be made by the investors and entrepreneurs trading freely on a free market.
Check out my post on free trade. You may have to copy and paste.

https://www.rationalselfinterest.com/post/free-trade