I own a business, a small business mind you that has yet to turn a profit but I am a business owner and I've been working 60 hours a week trying to build it to be successful.
There is this very negative stereotype about corporations and how evil they are and how we need to regulate them like crazy.
Let's take a huge corporation like google, google is a company I despise. I won't give my reasons here because it's irrelevant. But because I dislike them, I have removed them from my life. I don't use google for anything. I even adblock youtube on my phone and computer. (Sorry content creators)
When google does something bad people want regulations, instead of removing them from their life.
When you have a bad friend you don't ask the government to make them stop doing something. You tell them stop and when they won't you end the friendship. Companies are people the more you support bad business practices the more you will see of them. Regulations just allow bad people to stay in business, when you make it so a business can't destroy itself you ruin the concept of a free market.
My point being corporations are people, and just like people instead of asking the government to make them a good friend, you find a better friend. Theres so many small businesses out there that believe in treating people right, but it's hard for them to grow as we put more and more regulations on things. Where I'm from they've made a new rule on licenses for crane operators over a certain weight limit. It's not some license that you go take some simple test for, it's thousands of dollars per person. This means most small crane businesses won't be afford to run anymore, and definitely new businesses won't be able to be started.
This is sorta just my stream of thoughts on the subject.
I think the point he's trying to make here is that the license acts as a sort of filter for companies that can afford to do business safely. If you can't afford the license, there's a good chance you might be having to cut corners elsewhere. It's a cost of doing business. Lives are at risk and everyone needs to do their due diligence.
Nobody shops at Walmart because they think it's a fine, upstanding company. They shop there because it's cheaper. They generated enough sales that they have the ability to strong-arm suppliers into selling cheaper to them. The suppliers know that Walmart is the biggest player in the game and, if they want to stay afloat, they need to play ball. Meanwhile, other retailers can't beat Walmart's pricing because they don't have the sales volume to get the same discounts as Walmart--and that's exactly why they don't have the sales volume. It's a never-ending cycle that is killing companies like JC Penney, Macy's, Sears/Kmart, Toys 'R Us, and more.
Consumers could have kept up their old shopping habits and killed off Walmart and prevented this monopolistic mess, but we'll always go for the cheapest deal. Whether it's stupidity or a lack of means is questionable, but employees aren't paid much at Walmart and the higher-paying retail jobs are disappearing because of Walmart's dominance so you decide where the root is.
Public opinion, especially of themselves, is often inconsistent with reality. You can feel how you want about this, but stupid is as stupid does. We're still dumb opportunistic animals at our core.