The following is my rational of why government regulation of business is both right and proper:
Government, government, government! Sometimes we talk about our government as if it were a third party somewhere between We the People and Big Business.
Government has been different things in different places ... at different times. In 17th Century England, government was pretty much an organization of wealthy, land owning, aristocrats and merchants dedicated to increasing their wealth and keeping everyone else in their places. In 20th Century Nazi Germany, government was an ally and instrument of industry, dedicated to maintaining the power of a very few over very many and to profiting through the expansion of territory (and wealth) by means of the conquest of neighbors. In the 20th Century Soviet Union, though the government gave lip service to being the voice of the people, it also was a mechanism dedicated to perpetuating the wealth and power of a very few over very many. As a matter of fact, throughout history, governments have most often been the vehicle of perpetuating the power of a few over everyone else.
The thing that make the United States of America different from all other governments that came before and many that have come since lies in the preamble of the Constitution:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
The important phrase, the functional phrase and the phrase that sets our government apart from virtually every other form of government that came before and most that have been established since is the phrase "We the People". The power of our government is derived from We the People ... not We the Big Business or We the Wealthy People or We the People with the biggest private army. Our government is a vehicle by which the people of the United States of America express our will and set the rules by which we are to live together.
The beginning of second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, the document by which we claimed the right to establish our form of government reads:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
"Derive their just powers from the consent of the governed" is a very important phrase in establishing that our government exists at the will of the people ... unlike other forms of government wherein the people exist at the will of the government.
In short, we are the government. WE are the government. Whenever anyone speaks of the government in this country, they should be aware that in our case the word "government" is interchangeable with the words "We the People". As an exercise, whenever you use "government" in a sentence, consciously make an effort to use the words "We the People" instead ... as a simple test of the validity of the statement.
So, to speak of "government interference" as being a bad thing, one is actually taking the position that it is inappropriate for We the People to interfere in matters that effect us.
Our right to have a say in how businesses do business is found in Section 8 of the Constitution:
"The Congress shall have Power To ... regulate Commerce ... among the several States...;"
That means We the People empower ourselves, through our representatives (who constitute the most visible part of our self government) to enact such laws to regulate how businesses conduct themselves in interstate commerce. (The Federal Government is only concerned with trade across state lines. Trade within a state is left to the regulations of the various states.)
The purpose of government is to do for ourselves collectively that which we cannot do for ourselves individually. You concede that it is futile for an individual to "take on" Big Oil or Big Pharma ... or Big Rail Roads (in the past) or Big anything. You suggest that we band together to boycott or to take other actions that might nudge business into treating us as workers, consumers or citizens more fairly. But we already have a mechanism that bands and binds us together to accomplish collectively what we cannot do for ourselves individually. It is our government and when our government is working properly it is an expression of our will as a people. When it is working as it was originally planned, the regulations it imposes on the conduct of business voice the will of the people of this country and it is our right to "interfere" in matters that effect us. When it is not working to our satisfaction, then We the People use our power to change our government ... and we have done so regularly in our quadrennial elections (biennial and annual, too) by enforcing term limits on the current leadership and either encouraging it to continue or by replacing our leaders with new leaders. We have just gone through one of those glorious cycles and We the People have voiced our opinion that our representatives who have guided our ship of state for the last eight years have not performed to our satisfaction and have, in fact taken us down an ill advised and unacceptable path. The change in direction has been markedly peaceful, I might add.
So, I can agree with everything that you say ... except the premises upon which it appears you have built your argument ... First, the premise that government (when it's doing what its supposed to do) is something other than We the People banding together to accomplish the greatest good for the greatest number of us and second, that our government, as an expression of the will of the governed, has no right and certainly not the responsibility to "interfere" when an entity such as a business jeopardizes our rights to life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness, our health, our safety or our general well being.
Other than that, you may have a point.
If our government were anything other than what it is, a vehicle for the expression of the will of the governed, you would be 100% on target. Our government would have no innate right to "interfere" with the way a business conducts itself other than the coercive threat of raw power and brute force. That it is what it is constitutes the reason people from all over the world want to come here. That we represent true self government and that our government exists as an expression of the collective power of our citizens is what they all envy, desire and admire. Over the last two centuries, how many governments have been modeled on our own? That we are able to peacefully change our direction, our priorities and our chosen leaders is a testament to our strength; the strength that has people all over the world dancing in the streets, taking pride in OUR ability to peacefully change our course, to right our wrongs, correct our errors and to survive and prosper these 231 years ... by constantly "interfering" with every threat, internal or external, that jeopardizes our health, our well being, our safety, our lives, our liberties and our pursuit of happiness.
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