What If…?

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 

Texas & Gulf Coast                                  Petroleum & Natural Gas

NY & Northeast                                       Finance

Michigan & North Central                       Transportation

Tennessee Valley & Mid-Central             Agriculture