It seems to me there is a conspiracy of complicity in the developed world in allowing these behemoths to shirk what should be their dues.
Of course there is. For hundreds of years countries have been run by the wealthy for the benefit of the wealthy. The protection of 'property' was their only objective, 'property' being both tangible, as in land and possessions, and intangible, as in money/wealth. Those without 'property' didn't count, in fact, looking at the feudal system and slavery, a significant number of the propertyless were themselves 'property'.
The dominance of the pursuit of wealth has come to such a pitch that some believe that governments are powerless to control the financial markets, which exist for the accumulation of wealth;
When an editorial in the Guardian yesterday points out that a few words from the Governor of the Bank of England suggesting that the BoE might be 'more aggressive in cutting interest rates' caused a drop in the value of the pound on the foreign exchange markets, you begin to wonder just who is controlling what.
I am not against a market economy as opposed to a communistic 'planned' economy, but until some sort of mediation is achieved between the interests of the wealthy and those of the non wealthy the behemoths will always have the upper hand.
Forgive me for posting a long passage from Adam Smith's the wealth of Nations', but he explains it, not exactly in a nutshell, because no 18th C writer is succinct, but sufficiently well for what he says to chime very much with what we see today.
The interest of this third order, therefore, has not the same connexion with the general interest of the society, as that of the other two. Merchants and master manufacturers are, in this order, the two classes of people who commonly employ the largest capitals, and who by their wealth draw to themselves the greatest share of the public consideration. As during their whole lives they are engaged in plans and projects, they have frequently more acuteness of understanding than the greater part of country gentlemen.
As their thoughts, however, are commonly exercised rather about the interest of their own particular branch of business. than about that of the society, their judgment, even when given with the greatest candour (which it has not been upon every occasion), is much more to be depended upon with regard to the former of those two objects, than with regard to the latter. Their superiority over the country gentleman is, not so much in their knowledge of the public interest, as in their having a better knowledge of their own interest than he has of his. It is by this superior knowledge of their own interest that they have frequently imposed upon his generosity, and persuaded him to give up both his own interest and that of the public, from a very simple but honest conviction, that their interest, and not his, was the interest of the public. The interest of the dealers, however, in any particular branch of trade or manufactures,is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public. To widen the market, and to narrow the competition, is always the interest of the dealers. *To widen the market may frequently be agreeable enough to the interest of the public*; (Amazon!) but to narrow the competition must always be against it, and can only serve to enable the dealers, by raising their profits above what they naturally would be, to levy, for their own benefit, an absurd tax upon the rest of their fellow-citizens.
The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order, ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.
