There was at one time, as I learned in my indoctrination, a difference between public and private institutions. Government was public. Corporations were private. More recently--in the last dozen years or so, that distinction has been blurred. Government at one time had the power to regulate corporations. More recently, government refuses to regulate corporations, but allow them to do what they please unhindered.

Is our distinction between public and private obsolete? Is everything private now? Including government? If we (the people) don't own the government any more, who does? Or does the government, like the corporations own us? Is it moot to try to figure out who owns who? Are we all slaves, and these institutions are our masters, and it doesn't matter?


Hatha