A democratic society must prevent excessive economic concentration and ensure that corporate power serves the public interest rather than undermining it.

1. Non-Delegability of Essential Human Welfare

Essential human needs must be insulated from the profit motive and market forces that restrict access through price, scarcity, or exclusion.

Access to healthcare, food, education, and shelter should not depend on ability to pay, profit maximization, or artificially created scarcity. When basic human welfare is at stake, public responsibility cannot be delegated to systems designed to exclude.

2. Public Benefit

Legal privileges such as incorporation, accreditation, or licensure should be granted only to entities that accept a binding obligation to serve the public interest.

This obligation begins at creation and continues throughout an entity’s existence; the pursuit of profit does not excuse harm to the public. Collective entities exist by public permission, not natural right, and must never be treated as political persons.

3. Limits on Economic Concentration

Extreme concentrations of private economic power undermine the public interest when they allow control over markets, labor, information, infrastructure, or essential services.

Government should have clear authority to prevent, limit, or break up concentrations of ownership or control that weaken fair competition, restrict economic freedom, distort democratic participation, or impair the ability to govern in the public interest.

That authority should include structural remedies—such as separation or divestiture—and should not depend on showing short-term consumer price harm, intent to monopolize, or completed abuse. The risk posed by concentrated power is sufficient grounds for action.

Summary

A democratic economy must ensure corporate power operates within clear constitutional limits and serves the public interest rather than private dominance. Essential human needs—including healthcare, food, education, and shelter—must be protected from exclusionary market forces and profit maximization when access determines human dignity and democratic participation. Legal privileges such as incorporation, licensure, and accreditation should carry a binding obligation to act in the public interest, recognizing that collective economic entities exist by public authorization, not natural right, and are not political persons. Government must have explicit authority to prevent, limit, or dismantle excessive economic concentration when ownership or control over markets, labor, infrastructure, information, or essential services threatens fair competition or democratic governance. Structural remedies, including separation and divestiture, should be available without requiring proof of short-term consumer price harm. These principles safeguard economic freedom, democratic legitimacy, and the ability of government to act on behalf of the public rather than concentrated private power.