[billswift]

Companies exist because they reduce the transaction costs of getting things done relative to doing everythig with independent contractors for example (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transaction_cost).

The libertarian argument is about how much government regulation influences the size of companies, that is how large companies would be absent regulation, the vast majority of which impacts smaller companies more per dollar of income than it does larger one.

Limited-liability is a natural, almost inevitable, requirement for joint-stock companies, such as corporations, to exist. It does NOT limit criminal or tortious liability of the company; all it does is limit the financial liability of investors to what they have invested in that company, so if your retirement account bought stock in a company that went bankrupt, it is only out what it invested, it does not have to contribute toward paying off the company's secured debt.

[wlievens]

The libertarian argument (not sure from your post if you hold it) is pretty simplistic.

What kind of government regulation is keeping Microsoft at near-monopoly level? (if you disagree it's a monopoly, pretend we're a decade back in time)