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Economic power vs political power
In her 1961 Ford Hall Forum lecture "America's Persecuted Minority: Big Business," Ayn Rand makes a critical distinction between economic power and political power.
Economic power, she explains, "is the power to produce and to trade what one has produced." Since one cannot force others to buy one's good or services, economic power "can be achieved only by . . . the voluntary choice and agreement of all those who participate in the process of production and trade." Political power, on the other hand, is the fact that government "has the legal power to initiate the use of physical force against other individuals or groups and to compel them to act against their own voluntary choice." Thus the nature of economic power is voluntary, while the nature of political power is coercive.
Understanding the difference between economic power and political power--and the dire consequences of equating them--is necessary to a proper understanding of government. You can listen to the entire 1962 lecture, along with the Q&A that followed it, at the Ayn Rand Multimedia Library.
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