In her book "Private Government," the political philosopher Elizabeth Anderson asks us to imagine a government that assigns all of us a superior who we must obey — a superior unaccountable to either the rule of law or to those they order around.

This government can tell us what to do and what to wear, can snoop on our emails and record our phone conversations; it can sanction our behavior or our speech, and can even order us to submit to medical tests. This government offers us no say in how it governs or voice in electing its leaders; it owns all the means of production, and it organizes production through central planning.

This government, Anderson provocatively asserts, is one of the many "communist dictatorships in our midst." And of course, what Anderson is referring to is the modern American firm.

Reading this is like JFK Jr. flying all the way to Martha's Vineyard only to slam into the ocean a mile from the runway.