Corporatocracy: The Borderless Empire

[Grid]

When corporations become more powerful than governments, when governments are controlled by the private sector, when conglomerates have their bloodless revolution, then, then we will be living in a corporatocracy. As governments get poorer and corporations get richer, will we see a global corporatocracy? Some companies are already richer than entire countries. Will we see the rise of a megacorporation? Perhaps a real life Weyland-Yutani or Shinra Electric Power Company? Will we see the rise of another East India Company, this time on a global scale? Has this bloodless revolution already taken place without the general public knowing about it? Do corporations control America? These are all good questions. Do you believe we will ever see megacorporations in real life?

[Sage]

This doom and gloom has been brought to you by our friends at the News Corporation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corporation).

[Amnesiac]

You make it sound like this hasn't already happened. There are relatively few things preventing corporations from flexing their capitalist power. Just look at the health insurance industry exploiting its customers, or Wal-Mart ripping off its employees.

[Korashk]

You make it sound like this hasn't already happened. There are relatively few things preventing corporations from flexing their capitalist power. Just look at the health insurance industry exploiting its customers, or Wal-Mart ripping off its employees.
You and I have different views of what exploitation is.

[JunkBondTrader]

You and I have different views of what exploitation is.

I agree.

But once governments start behaving like nation states then we do indeed have a problem on our hands. Anyone who's read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson will know the dangers of an entirely corproate society all too well, regardless of whether or not that book was meant to be taken seriously.

[Amnesiac]

You and I have different views of what exploitation is.

True. Actually, corporations would still arguably regulate themselves if freed from government restrictions, to please the consumer base — like they already do. It's actually difficult to say a corporatocracy could even exist considering how companies are more than willing to make changes to accompany the views of the public (examples: BP and Wal-Mart). A "borderless empire" like that would require monopolies, otherwise corporations would compete with each other advertising one as offering more freedom than the other.

[trooneh]

Do you believe we will ever see megacorporations in real life?

We already have. Standard Oil at one point was a megacorporation that was broken up by the United States Supreme Court due to its monopoly and the antitrust laws in place at the time.