Hostile Takeover of Washington is brewing

[Ironside]

That is just the point. Government only provides corrupt trade practices. If companies eliminate one another there is no problem until there is a monopoly and without government intervention that is not likely to occur.

Businesses may require product safety regulation etc but in the US it is more about corporate welfare and price supports.

It is much closer to mercantilism than it is to capitalism.

You're missing the fundamentals of competition. There's 3 levels of it. There's fair play. There's self cheating (think doping), and there's destructive play (think poisoning your compeditors).

You don't want the two last ones. Does companies try to abuse the laws to get this space? Yes. Why? Because they're forbidden to do this otherwise, by the same lawmakers. The Rockefellers of the world aren't allowed to use his methods anymore (due to a stronger goverment).
Electrical companies can only properly compete if the grid is declared neutral, (not very free). Some markets aren't very monopolic in nature, some are.

That means that a "hands-off" method will create monopolies in some markets. So my suggestion of higher vigilance in preventing the companies to abuse the law has one problem, while your's about the free market fixing everything, except when it doesn't, has another.

Do you think the Koch brothers are funding libertarians and supporting gutting out the state because they believe in libertarian policies? Or is it to abuse those movements to get more money?

Look, I am with you on paying a living wage. It is just that you can’t set a minimum wage that is going to work. No matter how much you may wish it politics does not void economics. Wage and price controls don’t work in the long run. My divergence from the free traders is that I believe that businesses have to be socially responsible, pay a decent wage, and bring value to the community other than political donations.

To me the largest political divide is not left and right but authoritarian vs. individual rights and liberties.

That's nice. Of course free markets promotes psychopathic behavior (that's why they're so common as CEO:s). So don't expect companies to become socially responsible by natural means. And since the US hate unions, you can't get to union/company salary negotiations (to be fair, it took a while before both parts agreed to do proper negotiations, rather than trying to impose on the other). Sweden got no minimum wage btw. Not needed by law, since the unions do the control if companies step out of line and undercuts the salary.