[emodendroket]

I keep losing track of if they're supposed to be so powerful they answer to no one, or so cowed that they're going to get me extradited to China and sent to jail for life for looking at Winnie the Pooh cartoons.

[r_hoods_ghost]

Neither. Both. They exist in a state of constant negotiation with their hosts, driven by the corporate equivalent of a survival instinct.

[ben_w]

I wonder how they compare to the power of the British East India Company at various points in the latter’s history?

[emodendroket]

Can't think of any army they've fielded, nor any monopoly the government has explicitly granted them, so the analogy has its limits.

[ben_w]

Apples and oranges can, despite the aphorism, be compared.