Some people frame the gov't-vs-corp question as one of trust, which it certainly is. If we really thought about it, however, we might find that we're more motivated by the feeling (not the fact!) of agency. If you write lots of letters to your reps and attend lots of city council meetings, you probably feel more agency in dealing with the government. If you spend lots of money and change vendors often, you probably feel more agency in dealing with "private" corporations. Some of us might not experience much agency in our day-to-day lives, but still be tempted to choose one or both scenarios as a pleasant imaginative exercise.

I suspect that much of the agency we feel in our dealings with both of these groups is illusory, perhaps inspired by a conditioning to approve of the broad basket of behaviors they were going to exhibit anyway. Even more imaginary, however, may be the thought that a strong embedding in a peer-regulating group will give us more agency. Humans had that arrangement for thousands of years, but most recent (last few centuries anyway) changes in society have undermined it. Society is the sum of choices we all make, and we don't seem to be returning to the village green.