I am making a prediction. I am predicting that within twenty to thirty years corporations will not be the strong powerhouses that we all fear but rather weak, emasculated entities that are laughable, a mere shadow of their former selves. Let me say it again. Twenty to thirty years from now give or take a few years on either side, we will see large corporations as loud boisterous bullies, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Here’s why in my view this is certain.
Currently, corporate power results from a concentration of wealth. This wealth creates fascist attitudes which if not checked could lead to a police state. Or corporate power could create a revolution. The pitchfork uprising.
But there is a third possibility. This possibility is more sensed by me than proven by hard evidence. However, I can say that this third possibility is possible if not probable.
One thing that I have learned about myself is that for some reason I can sense trends by simply drawing conclusions about what I observe in the surrounding culture. By keeping my eyes open.
An example is my last novel, The Prisoner’s Dilemma, where I predicted what the outcomes of corporate personhood would be. Unlimited money to buy elections and spread influence. Corporate bullying and thuggery.
A few months after the publication of The Prisoner’s Dilemma, the Supreme Court issued the Citizens United Decision allowing corporations in the name of free speech to spend unlimited amounts of cash. A result that was easily and correctly foreseen.
In my new course currently under development for Thinkific titled The Rise And Fall Of Capitalism: How The Changing Work Force Will Destroy Capitalism I describe how and why new forces especially in the workplace are changing capitalism. As a result of these new forces particularly in the workplace, our culture will have one of three outcomes: a fascist or police state, a revolution by the pitchforks or a castrated corporate structure.
People are sick of corporate thuggery, corporate pollution that taxpayers have to clean up after, corporate wars for oil, corporate imperialism, corporate bullying and a host of other ills of current corporations.
We have much to fear from the first two outcomes, fascism or a revolt. But what would the third look like? First, the third outcome is already beginning. The future could consist of worker coops, local small businesses, corporate rejection by people who simply refuse to support corporations. They will withhold their purchasing power, maybe even living on a basic universal guaranteed income. Maybe there will even be a tax revolt.
I am hoping for and predicting this third outcome, one that perhaps Jefferson envisioned. Local communities of our friends and neighbors controlling their own lives and economic destinies. Although corporations will always exist, they no longer will control state and federal governments. Nobody will want to work for them. Future generations will wonder why we put up with their abuse.
Corporations will be starved to death by the missing workforce that they themselves have created. Over the next few weeks and months, I will be developing these ideas. Stay tuned for upcoming and specific details.
Your idea is refreshing. Whereas people in the past wanted to "keep up with the Joneses" by getting what they had and the corporations turned out look-alike products in mass quantities, today everyone has an expectation of being truly unique with widely differing lifestyles and the stuff that goes along with them. We all want to have designer stuff that is one-off and can only be produced through small-scale, very creative enterprises. The Internet allows everyone on the earth to connect with everyone else. Sales can be easily made between them, and advanced and highly competitive shipping makes products made in my kitchen or garage easily sold and shipped all over the world so that the big-box corporations and big box stores are going the way of dinosaurs.
Ron