Don't know if I should wade in (pun intended) on this discussion, given some of my past rants on this site (which I haven't done for a while - newer members can be thankful they've been spared!), but since I work for a business (environmental consulting) at least part-time, I will add my 2 cents, for what it's worth...
Some businesses lie and some don't - just like people. I've worked for companies that told outright lies, in one case in an unsuccessful attempt to deny me unemployment, after they fired me when I protested about their lying to me about how much field work I would have in my job. They may not have lied to their clients, but they sure did to me as well as the unemployment agency. They were a bad example, and I did not work for them for very long.
The company I work for now, on the other hand, hasn't really ever lied to me and certainly does NOT do so to it's clients. If they did, I wouldn't have worked for them since 1999. My previous employer never lied to me or it's clients either, nor did my employer before that. It just depends on the people running the business. I do believe that GM lies about the gas mileage that it states for the vehicles that it produces, as I have a Chevy Cobalt that gets 30-32 mpg on the highway when it's supposed to be getting 37, and it's a 2009!
We also know that polticians lie, not all of them and not all of the time, but many of them and a good deal of the time. ANYONE in a position of power in our society may lie to us. This should be no surprise to anyone here or elsewhere.
Having said that, I prefer thus: that my fisheries and fishing opportunties be controlled by a public agency (government, state, Federal, or local, depending) so that I don't have to pay a fee to some private concern just to go fishing; and that my fishing equipment be made by a private enterprise, so that I don't have to put up with shoddy gear made in a state-run factory like in the bad old days of Soviet Russia.
Also, I have a second job teaching introductory biology at a community college, so I work both in the private AND public sectors. I need them BOTH, and so does our society as a whole. The TRICK here, people, is striking the right balance between the two, and that gives our politicians and media pundits endless sources of argument...wherein, I'd rather be fishing...
Jonathon
No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...