Good heavens, man! There's no need to be so sensitive. I'm not a monster. Businesses are selfish because they have a mission, a charter, to make a profit for their investors. They are under no obligation to do anything else, except of course to obey the law and conduct their operations fairly (honest weights and measures, etc). If a business puts out a good product at a decent price society and the business both benefit. I use the term selfish in the same way Ayn Rand used it. It was not meant as an insult.

The purpose of government is different, its charter, its mission, is to serve the public with the consent of the public. The people give it power over the purse and authority to use force because the institution of policy will always be resisted by some, even if that policy is the best for everyone. People give the government power to hire and arm police so they can control criminals. The criminals do not like it. People also give the government power to regulate many activities in the society, and very often those participating in those activities do not like it either.

The ability of businesses to do harm is controlled by a free market. Without it business will simply conduct its affairs for its own benefit. The ability of government to do harm is controlled by a free people, through the vote. Without it, governments, will do the same thing businesses do, act selfishly for their own benefit.

Maintaining a free market is as important to our liberty as is maintaining a free system of voting and representation. But it is the nature of both politicians and businessmen to do everything they can to avoid and frustrate these controlling mechanisms. Economic power uncontrolled is as tyrannical and dangerous as political power uncontrolled.

The people exercise their right to maintain a free market and a free government through their control of goverment. The people also do not always agree how to do this, so they must always be ready to debate and discuss the issue. That is what we are doing now.

The government has a right and obligation to regulate business because business provides us with everything we need, because it employs so many of us, because it affects the environment and the political landscape, and this gives it great power over our lives, power to hurt as well as help, power which the free market alone cannot control effectively. That is why every society in history has always exerted some political power over business.

If you don't like your government, you can always vote it out of power. But if your businesses are not obeying the law and conducting their operations fairly, cheating you, or overcharging you, or endangering you or your environment, or bribing your politicans and judges so they can do this, you can't stop them by just refusing to choose their product.