megacorporations vs nations

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2004-10-19 11:12am

do you think the first will replace the second? its a pretty common topic in scifi these days, and with the major hooha of this election with corporations backing this and that candidate and this and that candidate granting taxbreaks to supporting corporations, is the new set of govts going to be the megacorps? we do have a shift every few centuries, tribes towns cities fuedal state nation state - is megacorp the next direction we're going in? and does the occurence of mercenaries and contractors better then some natioanl armies show that megacorps will become prevalent?

Murazor · Post by **Murazor** » 2004-10-19 11:22am

Megacorps won't replace governments...

they will just take over the gov

salm · Post by **salm** » 2004-10-19 11:31am

didn´t we already have something like that? the british tea company that had territories in india and posessed a whole armada of battleships that made the fleet of other nations look like tin soldiers.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-10-19 11:43am

salm wrote:didn´t we already have something like that? the british tea company that had territories in india and posessed a whole armada of battleships that made the fleet of other nations look like tin soldiers.

IIRC those ships operated under the athority of the Crown and flew British colors.

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2004-10-19 11:49am

Not a chance. Corporations exist at the pleasure of governments - if the government is pissed, the corporation doesn't stand much of a chance.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-10-19 11:50am

The East India Company was practically the largest single non-gov't entity of its time and I believe it did have the ability to create its own military if need be, but the British gov't and Crown looked after it.

Boyish-Tigerlilly · Post by **Boyish-Tigerlilly** » 2004-10-19 12:54pm

Don't certain corporations actually have a higher income/worth than several nations? I think wal-mart's was higher than t hat of belgium or something. I will get my anthropology book and post again. I am at school now, so I can't get good numbers.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » 2004-10-19 01:20pm

salm wrote:didn´t we already have something like that? the british tea company that had territories in india and posessed a whole armada of battleships that made the fleet of other nations look like tin soldiers.

At its height in the early 19th century, the Hudson's Bay Company owned huge tracts (something like six million sq-km) of Canada and most of what's now Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon - its holdings were larger than all of Europe (less western Russia) combined.

As to Walmart, its annual sales are in the $250B to $300B range, which would put them the high twenties in world GDP rankings, below Belgium but above countries like Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Greece. GM, GE, Ford and ExxonMobil would also make the top 50.

Of course, this is just a cash flow thing; their assets are a tiny fraction of a country's.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2004-10-19 01:23pm

[voice=Monty Python]It's been done before.[/voice]

Like many Libertarian ideas, though, it was done in the 19th century and eventually dropped in favor of modern setups. Of course, we may see a revival if a new colonial era starts.

RedX · Post by **RedX** » 2004-10-19 03:05pm

One only has to look at what happens when a Major Corporation gets accused of something by a government. Enron, Microsoft, various recent Russian companies, etc. etc.

The Corporations have oodles of money, and that DOES let them influence governments... but not enough so that they don't get hammered under when a government decides they have to go.

After all, a government is the biggest monopoly of all...

Jalinth · Post by **Jalinth** » 2004-10-19 03:07pm

Boyish-Tigerlilly wrote:Don't certain corporations actually have a higher income/worth than several nations? I think wal-mart's was higher than t hat of belgium or something. I will get my anthropology book and post again. I am at school now, so I can't get good numbers.

Income doesn't equal GDP. Fundamentally different concepts - GDP can't really apply to a corporation.

At the moment, corporations can't command significant arbitrary powers.
Even the East Indies Company at its height was still dependent on Britain. Call it an incorporated vice-roy - extremely powerful and wielding significant powers, but the legitimacy of these powers (people willing to obey them w/o being forced) rested on the continuing support of the British Crown/Parliament. Remove that legitimacy, and how many of your administrators/captains/army officers will decide to return to Great Britain in order to obey your country's commands.

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2004-10-19 04:21pm

The DuPonts and JP Morgan wanted to overthrow FDR's administration. Luckily Smedley Butler exposed them and testified about it for the McCormack-
Dickstein Committee. Nowadays corporations just buy off every politician they can for their agendas.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2004-10-20 01:21pm

war is still a racket tho.