One argument recently made is that “a government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything that you have.” It occurs to me that this does not only apply to the government, and that a private economy that is big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything that you have.
I should know. I've been on both the winning and the losing sides of capitalism. And while the attention of liberty-seekers is directed at confronting the government, many non-governmental organs of tyranny and corruption grow up outside the scrutiny of these liberty-seekers.
These organs include, but are not limited to: Tyrannical families, suffocating communities, oppressive religions, dishonorable businesses and corrupt networks in law and medicine. All of the above entities are unelected, unofficial, unchecked, unbalanced and unaccountable. Which means that all of them have potential for unlimited tyranny and corruption.
Are governments capable of tyranny and corruption? Of course they are; and in recognizing this and putting into place effective corrective measures the founders of America did a great deed for the whole of mankind. But they have failed to see how non-governmental organs are also capable of tyranny and corruption. I would rather be dealing any day with the Obama government than with Texas Oil, the mafia, religious cults, the Fatherhood Foundation or crooks on Wall Street. The first is elected, official, accountable, checked and balanced, which means that there is a lot done to correct its potentials for wrongdoing. The same is not the case for the others.
So that while it remains imperative to continue checking the government in its propensity for corrupt and tyrannical practices, it is also important to recognize that the government is not the only entity capable of such things. An entity that is unelected, unofficial, unaccountable, unchecked and unbalanced can, and will, possess unlimited potentials for tyranny and corruption. And a person who is truly dedicated toward fighting such things will not limit himself to oversight over the government and will also scrutinize unelected organs of power lest they also become tyrannical and corrupt.