Why do we trust the state more than Starbucks?

I've been reading King Leopold's Ghost, by Adam Hoschild, which describes the reign of terror that King Leopold implemented in the Congo in the 1800s. I recommend it to anyone interested in Congo, development, colonialism, or international studies in general. The book reads like a novel, and in some ways its hard to believe this actually happened.

The one thought that keeps coming to me while I read: I understand that certain multinational billion dollar corporations do not always act responsibly. I understand that they can exploit labor or harm the environment. I understand that sometimes companies like Wal-Mart may not be in the best interest of people in poor nations.

But show me ONE private entity that has done as much wrong as our governments - often democratically elected governments - have done in the past several hundred years. What happened in Congo happened because kings like Leopold were allowed to amass wealth using political power; they were allowed to use the military to force people into slavery, to steal resources from the rightful owners, to essentially rape the Congo.

Similarly, what happened in Nazi Germany happened because a (democratically elected) leader was permitted to use government force to achieve the ends of what the majority wanted.

Private companies can't use force. If we provide a legal framework that forbids coercion, private entities must follow the law, they must operate within the law. And whether its right or its wrong, GOVERNMENTS do not have to operate within the law. Throughout history they have been able to break the law - because they are the law.

Slavery and genocide are products of governments. Governments are the architects of colonialism and imperialism; governments are the ones who forced their way into Africa and Latin America and used guns to get raw materials and labor. And as for private companies who participated, like Dutch East and West India Companies? They were granted monopoly power by the state and backed up by a government military.

So all I'm saying, the next time you criticize Wal-Mart, Starbucks or McDonalds for "cultural imperialism" or exploitation or environmental degradation or prolonging poverty, stop and think about the fact that governments have killed more people than natural disasters, or pandemics, or murderers or even terrorists.