Here's a guy that really could claim that he invented the internet (or at least that he was involved in its development), and he says we could never do it again because the corporations wouldn't let us.  There was a time that the ability to incorporate was a privilege that governments allowed for special projects when it was in the public interest, and they were disincorporated when they no longer servered that purpose.  The special projects usually involved harnessing private sector innovation in ways that a single small business couldn't.  Now corporations stifle innovation.  Whether you're talking about solar power, mass transportation, medications that actually cure diseases (instead of treating symptoms or doing stupid cosmetic things), creating a food supply that is healthy and abundent, space exploration... anything...  we really haven't progressed much in the past 50 years.  Corporations definitely continue to develop things, but they are products, and some of them are pretty damn cool (like my iPod), but they are definitely geared towards maximizing profits for stockholders, not benefiting society as a whole.  Which would be fine if someone else were in charge of making societal improvements.  But they aren't, because we have a philopsophy that relies in the invisible hand of the market for innovation, so our government has a very small role when it comes to innovation (except when it comes to the military, but that's a different topic).  That free market philosophy is also very cynical.  It comes from Adam Smith, but his system did not include corporations.   In fact, he distrusted even the early corporations that existed in his time (the ones that governments could disincorporate if they got out of control) and certainly never imagined the global mega-corporations of today.  The people who push that philosophy today, from the Catos and Heritiges, (ought to) know that this isn't what Smith intended and that it certainly isn't working.  We're still using a coal and oil based energy system.  That is so 1875!  We're still driving cars 40 miles back and forth to work across jammed up highways (It's 2005!  We should have flying cars and teleporters by now and you know it!)(Or at least an effective and convenient mass transportation system that runs on clean electricity generated by solar power).   We are technologically backwards and we can't allow this to continue.   A while back i posted an essay by Dean Baker on the idea that we would get a better return on investment if we doubled the amount of money the government spent on pharmaceutical research.  We should do that in all areas.  To Americans, that very idea is "socialism", and once someone calls "socialism" the argument is over.  But at least a "socialist" government is theoretically accountable to the people via elections (so the proper solution is to increase government power while adding electoral reforms).  Corporations aren't accountable to anyone, and as they continue to have more power over our lives, that's called "despotism".