I suppose its true that the private sector doesn't have the traditional governmental incentives of religious persecution, exploitation of indigenous people, proselytization, and banishment of undesirables to encourage them to seek out and colonize new lands. But who knows, maybe we'll come up with other reasons to do it in the future.
> I suppose its true that the private sector doesn't have the traditional governmental incentives of religious persecution, exploitation of indigenous people, proselytization, and banishment of undesirables to encourage them to seek out and colonize new lands.
I disagree. Private sector has those incentives when they lead to making money. Both past and present is full of cases of companies committing atrocities.
Difference being, one can choose to not support companies who slaughter innocents. You cannot choose to back your government. (and voting doesn't work as we've seen with the hypocrisy from Obama.)
You can, it's called migration :). Someone here mentioned "vote vs. exit"; both of them are available in either private or government sectors.
That's in principle of course. In practice, migration is hard and not supporting companies doesn't usually work (boycotts don't really hurt companies in any significant ways).
