What
if the US government no longer existed? What if corporations bought the right
to carve our country up into “corporate controlled regions” with their own forms
of governance? What if travelling was forbidden without permission? What if
voting had been suspended and we no longer could elect government officials? What
if hate groups and religious zealots fought for and against these regional
governments?
Hitler’s Germany doesn’t seem so far removed
from this, does it?
Today,
corporate entities that violated our laws and plunged our nation into near
financial ruin have not been investigated or brought up on any charges. They
probably never will. The religious voice has almost drowned out all secular interests.
These two entities are now crying “class warfare” and “religious persecution”
while collecting huge amounts of money and overturning legal rulings through
deception and subterfuge.
Robert
A. Heinlein wrote a silly book in 1982 called “Friday” that deals with a
similar scenario. It is sophomoric and probably meant mostly for pre-pubescent
males but its story line could be a follow-up to what’s happening in our society
now. We have a national politically conservative group that is working very
hard to disenfranchise minorities and underprivileged socio-economic groups,
roll-back women’s rights, dismantle Medicare and Social Security, and make the
top 1% even richer than they have become over the past two decades.
Wealth
and power funneled to the top of the corporate world could lead to the
formation of regions of the US into “mini corporate-countries” with their
boards of directors acting as governing bodies, controlling the lives and
livelihoods of those citizens within their borders. (In my opinion, the only
difference between Heinlein’s Science Fiction and reality is that his Sci-Fi
postulates and reality actuates. If it can be conceived, it can be done.)
Stranger things have happened in my lifetime. Who knew that out of George
Orwell’s book “Nineteen Eighty-Four” could come our own “Big
Brother” in the form of the Internet and our cell phones? Every move we make
and every word we speak can be tracked mechanically, without our knowledge. We
would be hard pressed to go OFF the grid, and it is almost impossible to
function without a phone, without the Internet, & without credit cards.
Corporations want our information and this is how they get it. Three credit
agencies will gladly give our credit histories to any bank that pays for it.
Below
is my view of what the “Balkanization of the US” by corporate interests might
look like. This could become a global dystopian nightmare. Corporations would
control the manufacture and distribution of most of the necessities of life and
may even have control over who lives and who dies if healthcare is corporatized.
My family thought I was crazy to lobby against segregation before it became illegal. They think I’m crazy to declare that I’m for
same-sex marriage, for equal pay, for the right of a woman to choose, for
taxing the rich at a higher rate, for Medicare for all, and more. What if…I’m
right?
Area Industry
California & Western Plains Communication and IT
California & Western Plains Communication and IT
Texas & Gulf Coast Petroleum & Natural Gas
NY
& Northeast Finance
Michigan
& North Central Transportation
Tennessee Valley & Mid-Central Agriculture
