&gt; rely on corporations to protect the people from an overreaching government?<p>Corporations aren&#x27;t fundamentally different from the government. Both are just groups of people, at an abstract level.<p>It&#x27;s actually not uncommon for local governments to literally exist as incorporated entities. Or for corporations to serve as the <i>de facto</i> government for a region.<p>It&#x27;s a relatively recent phenomenon that we view these as completely different concepts, but they&#x27;re not as distinct as we often think. It&#x27;s more accurate to think of government as a special case of corporations rather than a completely different concept.