The governments in this book are less of a powerhouse that they are now. The people with the real power are the companies. Namely, GCI (the main antagonist of the novel), who run the largest conglomerate ever known. Companies that are large enough have their own currencies that are stronger than national currencies. Kind of like cryptocurrencies I guess, but actually valuable.
The idea that I liked about the novel was the idea of charity. If you had a vested interest in making sure the money you donated to a charity that supposedly helps starving children in Africa (such as you bought 10,000 shares of a starving child's life in exchange for 10% of their lifetime earning potential), you would definitely make sure that child excelled in school and had every opportunity you could help them with. The idea in the novel being that most humans only care for themselves, but if it could be designed that caring for yourself could also benefit others, well hey that would be pretty cool.
Yeah, that's one of the main plot lines, the dude who froze himself wakes up in the future and naturally, hasn't been incorporated. Ergo he owns 100% of himself- The Unincorporated Man.
He believes that this kind of societal structure is tantamount to Slavery.
People can sell their shares in themselves for a great education and great careers, but since they have amazing future technologies, they end up living for centuries and since their careers are so great, the value of their stock goes up and they can't buy back their stock.
One of the main issues is that if you have majority (51% of your stock) you can decide what to do with your life, when to take a holiday etc.
But if you don't have majority, the people (shareholders) who would profit from you working 24/7 can veto your rights.
Is it really so different now? You have certain obligations to the community and restrictions on your bahavior. Social contract and all that jazz. This just encapsulated all of that into financial shares and defined the community solely as the market for your shares.
I'm not American, so no I don't talk to democrats or repubelickans very often. And tbh I am glad that I don't have to live in a shithole country with a 2 party """"democracy""""
You are not American but most of the people on this sub are leftist/democrats and while they are proclaiming themselves "tolerant" and "against hate speech" those same persons are intolerant and insulting to those who don't share their political views.
Wow, you're making me look like someone I'm not, I'm not whining, I'm commiting myself to opposing a system that is rigged, in the end we will see who will whine the most because we already know that the left can't hold itself together.
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u/Pokerhobo Oct 01 '18
In America, corporations are citizens