> I do not believe that in the four administrations which have taken place, there has been a single instance of departure from good faith towards other nations. we may sometimes have mistaken our rights, or made an erroneous estimate of the actions of others, but no voluntary wrong can be imputed to us. in this respect England exhibits the most remarkable phaenomenon in the universe in the contrast between the profligacy of it’s government and the probity of it’s citizens. and accordingly it is now exhibiting an example of the truth of the maxim that virtue & interest are inseparable. it ends, as might have been expected, in the ruin of it’s people. but this ruin will fall heaviest, as it ought to fall, on that hereditary aristocracy which has for generations been preparing the catastrophe. I hope we shall take warning from the example and crush in it’s birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and to bid defiance to the laws of their country.

--Thomas Jefferson, 1812 [1]

When private power eclipses democratic power, you cease to have a democracy. You have a dominant aristocracy/oligopoly, which is not functionally different for 99% of the populace than a monarchy. Extremely large corporations are filled to the brim with powerful but incompetent people who got there through connections and political warfare instead of merit.

A corporation should be allowed to grow until the point where they own enough of the government to make their own rules and avoid paying taxes like the rest of us. As soon as they do that, they should be split across state lines so there is more democratic control over their behavior, and they are small enough to audit and tax accordingly.

[1] https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-10-02-0...