A glimpse into your life under a Corporatocracy. It's not so bad as long as you don't fall through the cracks! by Bill Gee
(centrist)
Monday, July 18, 2011
As the leaders of the Corporate Ruling Elite position themselves as the “ruler apparent” of the world, and we consider our outrage that such a trampling of individual freedom that would be, perhaps it is time we paused to consider whether there is a bright side of a future where we owe our allegiance to our corporate masters. Perhaps it might not be so bad, or perhaps it might not be so different than the world we live in today.
For the sake of argument, let us assume that after a series of unfortunate events, both the Federal Government and most of the state governments have failed. No longer does either institution have any authority or legitimacy due to some catastrophic failure. We must also assume that in that power vacuum, the world’s largest corporate institutions have collaborated to assume the duties of government. The ultimate façade of the government is irrelevant. They may or may not hold elections, meet in the traditional legislative bodies, or declare their allegiance to a Constitution or some other well-meaning Charter. What we will also assume is that such declarations would be used simply to gain legitimacy among the People, and will have no real meaning in practice.
Employment
A person, as an economic unit of commerce, is a terrible thing to waste. Therefore, your beneficent corporate masters will do their best to reduce unemployment for all people who are willing and able to work.
For the young, the standardized testing environment would be used to identify aptitudes and skills, which will determine the best charter institutions for those students. A competitive bidding process will take place among various corporate entities to select the students of their choice and through a process of corporate sponsorships, students will be given an education catered to the needs of their future employer. Education for these bright students will be free-of-charge to their families in exchange for a contract that binds the student to that employer following graduation.
For older workers, they are very unlikely to see any difference in their short or long term employment prospects. This is due to the fact that most older workers possess either outdated or imperfect skill sets to meet the needs of their employers. Therefore, in the short term, you will unlikely see any difference in your employment prospects. However, as younger people start to graduate from the corporate charter education system, older workers will find themselves promptly replaced by their own children. The unemployed may be given some level of compensation in the short term, but more likely they will also find themselves working in the Underground Economy as any social safety net will not exist.
Entertainment
Movies, television, sporting events, and Reality TV will not go away under your new masters. In fact, you will likely see an expansion of options in this area as an entertained populace is a populace that will not cause any trouble. Print media will remain but thanks to an all-electronic media environment, books, magazines and all internet-based content can be edited and censored at will in order to remove anything that would cause a person to question the status quo. There will be no need for massive book burnings as libraries will simply recycle their print media in favor of the electronic format.
Entertainers and sports figures themselves would keep their “superstar” and celebrity status. Reality TV will continue to be the “venue of the desperate” as those who fall through the cracks of the employment market will have the option of making their pathetic skills and personal lives the fodder for the masses, after which they can join the ranks of the Underground Economy.
Infrastructure
Your Corporate Masters recognize the need for a well-maintained infrastructure in order to facilitate commerce. Therefore, you can rest assured that most Interstate Highways, freight rail systems, airports, and other ports-of-call will be well maintained. The main power, water, and sewerage infrastructure will also benefit from this system. (At the expense of the environment, of course.)
Where the system is likely to lag is in the “secondary” infrastructure market that services the parts of the country where economic priorities are fewer. Densely populated urban centers will see frequent power outages, drinking water that contains high levels of heavy metals and other toxins, poorly maintained apartment buildings (home ownership, what’s that?) and roads that are poorly maintained. However, these people will also see the highest utility bills in the country as power companies attempt to milk every last dollar they can from the aging system, much the way it already is in cities like Camden, NJ.
Retirement & Old Age
There is nothing more inefficient than a worker that is past his/her prime, especially when they are taking a salary three times greater than a young, highly skilled worker who would do anything to land their first job. Therefore, your corporate masters will institute a system designed to benefit their younger workforce. Life insurance companies already assume this model, so why not your employer? Such as system would encourage innovation and a draconian management style that is bound to maintain order and discipline.
Under this system, older workers, in exchange for the privilege to work and whose skills are still useful, will see their pay decrease over time rather than the other way around while younger workers will command the greatest salaries and wield the greatest amount of power. Eventually, the older worker will reach his/her mandatory retirement age and will be given a gold watch that they can later pawn for grocery money and send them on their way.
Those who are too old or too sick to work will be given to their families for care. (Caregivers will not be compensated, of course.) Those who can afford it will spend their final days in wonderful nursing facilities with state-of-the-art healthcare equipment while the less fortunate will pawn their belongings, their life insurance policies, and anything else of value in order to generate enough cash to stay alive. Those who are poor, but can still work will perhaps find jobs in the Underground Economy. Since life insurance companies will make more money from a dead person than a poor living one, they will offer free assisted suicide services for those who can no longer contribute to society. (Family members would have to cover the costs of final expenses, of course.)
The Underground Economy
Beneath all the shiny chrome of the Corporatocracy will be an underground economy for everyone who is alive but does not comfortably fit into the new corporate model. These will include a wide swath of both the young and old who through their own actions, inactions, handicaps or inabilities find it difficult or impossible to fully participate in society. Some will turn to crime (both of the petty and organized variety), some will turn to the thriving sex trade, some will search for the crumbs of society by auditioning for increasingly dangerous and humiliating “Reality” television series, and some may simply literally fall through the cracks of society to form their own underground subcultures.
Science Fiction?
I admit, much of what I described in the above has been chronicled by writers far greater than myself. Books such as Brave New World, Judge Dredd, Alien, Fahrenheit 451, and countless others have described the culture and dangers that such worlds would have to individual freedoms and liberty in the name of profit and efficiency. In many ways, we already experience some of the aspects described in these horrifying depictions of the future. At the moment, our democratic institutions still exist, but they are slowly being eaten away. In our lifetime, the world I have just described may come to pass.
If you are grateful to have your job, enjoy the cult-like obsession with sports, movies, or celebrity TV, you will hardly notice any change in your culture as the corporate coup-de-tat takes place. Therefore, you might wonder whether it is worth the risk to your financial and personal security to fight against it.
That is, until you are no longer any use to your masters…
The views expressed
in this article are those of Bill Gee only and
do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates.
Bill Gee is solely responsible for the contents
of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated
with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Posted By: Bill Gee
Date: July 19, 2011 06:59:17 AM
I'm not saying that the functions of State will disappear, I'm saying that the corporations will take over the functions of state. I am further arguing that the corporations have already taken over many aspects of the state. Private companies already run our prison systems and many of our roads and bridges. They control the election and legislative process and they control the judiciary.
They also control the regulatory environment (just look at what's happening with the new Consumer Protection Agency). Do you think it was an accident that the FED, the SEC, Congress, and FASB never saw the wide-spread corruption and abuse on Wall Street prior to 2008? Do you think it's an accident that nobody who was responsible for nearly bringing down the economy has been brought to justice? Do you think it is an accident that the few regulations that managed to squeeze by Congress last year are all being blocked and defunded?
In essence, the State - as a political concept - no longer exists. What we are left with is a Corporatocracy where the nation's strongest companies tell the "State" exactly what to do in order to benefit their bottom lines at the cost of the individual freedoms of its people. It's already happened. The coup-de-tat is complete. All we're waiting for now is the facade to drop.
You are missing one thing and it is the critical factor. The state has the guns.
So, for the state to "disappear", in your scenario, the corporations would need to take over that aspect of the state. To do that is very expensive. They would no longer "profit". Profit defines the sphere they operate in. Without profit, they shrivel up and die.
Why would they continue to do what they do if they had the guns? They could simply steal everything, rather than go through the motions of legitamacy.
The protective powers of the state must exist for the corporation to thrive. Without the state legal system, the corporation in pure fantasy.
The state is always "bought off". That is exactly what gives it strength, not what weakens it.
Posted By: Bill Gee
Date: July 25, 2011 07:01:40 AM
True, the state has the guns, however, there is more to winning legitimacy than simply holding a populace hostage with the threat of violence for noncomplience with the law.
Also, you point out a very critical factor as to why a Corporatocracy would eventually fail. Law enforcement through violence and the maintenance of a justice system is very expensive. Already we are seeing the civil court systems in almost every state being cut back and being replaced with mandatory arbitration, which is bought and paid for by the Corporate State. In other words, corporations have compensated for the expense of civil litigation by simply bypassing the system altogether. Eventually, the civil court system as we know it will be replaced with a company-paid arbitor who will always side with his/her boss in all matters.
To your point that corporations would simply "steal everything", this is illogical and flies in the face of the concept of maintaining a viable business model. Companies make their money through the sale of products and services and in order to do that they need a customer base. If they "steal everything" from their customers, they will have cut off their primary means of cash flow. It is far better to pay your workforce, convince them that they're happy through a coordinated campaign of propaganda and entertainment distraction so that they will continue to pay top-dollar to buy your product. The "motions of legitimacy" are necessary to convince the people that they haven't already given up all of their rights and freedoms to the Corporate State.
The "Legal System" is a fantasy. Spend some time in a courtroom and you'll see it for yourself.
If the State exists because it's been "bought off" by the corporate elite, then it has lost legitimacy as an instrument of the People. The purpose of the State is to provide a neutral framework for the protection of individual rights, service of justice, and the protection of the free flow of commerce. When the state favors one group over another due to their economic influence, the State has failed and must be replaced.
when i said that they would "simply steal everything" if they had the guns, i was pointing out the fact that within the state/corporate alliance it is necessary to arm the state and not arm the "monopoly business model". Once the business model is armed, it is no longer a "business model", it is then an army of thugs.
the state never has "legitamacy" as an instrument of the people. that would be illogical. the "monopoly of force within a region, which is the accepted definition of the state, can never be legitamate. Legitamacy can never be based on coercion.
Legitamacy is based on consensus. There is never a need to "force" people to do what is good for them. They will for the most part, choose that willingly.
I agree with what your saying. But...............why replace the state? you may be alluding to consensual governance, which the state is not and never can be.
