Government, Inc.!

Well, in this new, Global Age, the rich now have the option of just abandoning the poor and start up shop somewhere else.

• Ex:

• USA workers keep forming unions? Move your facotry/jobs to China.

• The American work force is too backward to do high tech work? Import Indians.

• The American government is trying to impose taxes on the the top 10%? The top 10% open shell corporations and off shore accounts. (Or become Canadian...)

• The government abandons all pretense about being pro-Free Market and starts throwing up trade barriers and protectionist policies like a Communist Nation? Again. Abandon that market and foccus on the China market.

Sounds trite, but a Government's job is not easy.

It really is like a science lab, with industry seeing how far they can stretch global society. For science.

All our progress and technology, and what does it do? Advance the human race? Ha!

Nah, it just makes our capitalist overlords' jobs easier.

edited 4th Feb '12 9:42:48 PM by Flyboy

Well, how would an all powerful government do instead?

Better yet, how would an IDEALIZED government/business hybrid operate?

Well I think the worst part about corporate-run government here is that they only care about profit. So what ends up happening is that while they poorly fund education and the sort, (I mean look at Apple, they do zero charity whatsoever), it means that over time all the important employees are foreigners because only those countries produce the intelligent talent capable of doing the job.

You look at American high-tech today, most of it is Canadian, Chinese or Indian. Or some combo of the three.

edited 4th Feb '12 9:46:00 PM by breadloaf

~shrug~

At this point, the US is a sinking ship, if things like OWS are worthless. Just like the Battle for Seattle back in the late '90s. An initial blip, followed by a rapid fall to obscurity.

In the Gilded Age, the people had enough power to get a bone thrown to them by the plutarchs. These days, we don't even get that...

Yeah but USA got through the Gilded Age.

I suppose the OP may be asking how would it work ideally and I would say that cities are formed by corporate-conglomerates who pool together to build a good city to attract talent from across the country to enrich their talent pool. How nice a city is determined by the local industry. Everyone else works small businesses to support the employees of the corporation. All the non-related work is contracted out to local businesses (such as security, catering, construction, sanitation etc).

The overall government provides the military defence that corporate security agencies are unable to provide. There is some drawing on corporate and/or income tax (more likely the latter), as well as sales tax, to provide inter-city connection to provide an overall functioning trade network. That allows goods to flow (at least to outside the country) and for talent to move about cities (or come in from foreign sources).

We also had World War II. If not for that, I highly doubt the US would be around today in any kind of recognizable form.

And, yes, breadloaf described how it would go at the absolute ideal. Such a thing wouldn't be pretty in reality by any stretch, however.

So everything would have to be a non restrictive company town? IN the sense that you could actually afford to move and not be bullied into staying by the company? (And that the company would ultimately not own your soul.) I really don't see it working out that way, given that even in this ideal system there is no check on any business becoming a monopoly and then charging whatever the fuck they want to.

Sounds too good to be true really.

Also, Flyboy, the US is not a sinking ship. At this point in history, I don't really see many countries as sinking ships. To refer to anything as a sinking ship indicates you've given up already.

edited 4th Feb '12 10:03:19 PM by AceofSpades

I haven't decided if I have or not.

And, I dunno. It might work better in a world without a lot of robotics and computer technology.

...

Slightly better.

You've been spending a lot of time in Seattle?

edited 4th Feb '12 10:26:11 PM by ForlornDreamer

Has there ever been a moment where One Nation Under Copyright worked out for the better?

Hurray were approaching a dystopia!

Well, you could play a good game as the Morganites in Alpha Centauri. Dunno how it actually turns out for the people, though.

Well, depending on who you listen to.

• A) One Nation Under Copyright is the best thing EVER!!! People now have jobs and money, infrastructure like schools, roads and even clean drinking water! (Obviously, this is Big Business talking, might even be true given the crappy places they might invest in.)

• B) One Nation Under Copyright stinks! People's rights and being trodded on! The rich elite have all the power and civil society and rule of law that is vital for a progressive, egalitarian society is in grave danger! Viva REVOLUTION!!! (obviously NOT business. Probably the disenfranchised.)

Or none of the above.

• USA might be considered this if you can swallow that the United East India Company was the real "father" of the nation.

edited 4th Feb '12 10:56:42 PM by Natasel

@Balmung: In theory, the Morganites should be able to plow twenty percent of all that income into Psych, leading to massive Golden Ages (as I did in my last game). Hell, that's what happened in the Gilded Age! Part of why the movement against child labor was so successful is that the progressives (who were mostly elites, not working-class socialists!) preferred at least semi-educated workers to staff their factories.

However, if labor can be fully or mostly automated, corporations have no real incentive to educate the masses. People cease to be useful factors of production, labor becomes a simple form of capital, and Marx' theories of value break down; the choice is no longer "socialism or barbarism" as the elites can insulate themselves from the useless plebs. For a somewhat-comparable model, look at the late Roman Republic, and the relationship between the nobiles (capitalists), plebeians (laborers), and slaves (robots). The nobles had no actual use for the plebeian masses, so they tossed the plebs on the dole, fed them bread and circuses, and gathered slaves from the conquests (and bred more in Rome) to staff the latifundia. A corporate state would almost certainly run in a similar way; the plebs would be essentially a nonproductive nuisance to the people who owned the robots. (Wall E, anyone?)

Most of the Thirteen Colonies were, in fact, founded by independent profit-seeking corporations.

edited 4th Feb '12 10:57:45 PM by Ramidel

I always thought we are moving towards The Time Machine future.

I'm going to eat you Thorn, grr.

Good luck I'm behind 7 proxies.

And covered in thorns.

I think it's more like The Iron Heel future...

Damn, I hate being the optimist. I actually think we can make enough robots for everyone to be rich.

Of course we could.

They just won't be used for such.

Thread Hop: This is basically what happened to Hawai'i before it became a state.

edited 4th Feb '12 11:18:54 PM by DrunkGirlfriend

Depends. If we tech-heads can hold the line, defend the internet and keep copyright infringement possible, then when materials and manufacturing costs reach near-zero and people start buying blueprints instead of finished goods, we'll be able to make a significant improvement in people's lives.

If the big boys can slap proper DRM on their goodies, however, and we can't break it...

edited 4th Feb '12 11:24:45 PM by Ramidel

Mm. Good luck with that.

How would the robots make us rich? Besides the people involved in the manufacture of said robots?