Business & Finance Nevada Bill allows Corporations to form their own Governments

[Bear Ribs]

This hasn't been voted on yet and hopefully will die stillborn. Nevada is making plans to let tech corporations form their own county-level governments where the corporation will have the authority to impose taxes, assign schools, put their own judges and police forces in place etc. This “alternative form of local government” is because traditional government is apparently inadequate.

Because company towns worked out so well last time, I'm sure nothing bad will happen from the police, judges, zoning enforcement, and entire school staff working directly for a megacorporation that also owns all the lands and buildings and collects their own taxes on top of collecting their rent directly from the paycheck they give you.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/nevada/articles/2021-02-04/nevada-bill-would-allow-tech-companies-to-create-governments

 

[Abhorsen]

This hasn't been voted on yet and hopefully will die stillborn. Nevada is making plans to let tech corporations form their own county-level governments where the corporation will have the authority to impose taxes, assign schools, put their own judges and police forces in place etc. This “alternative form of local government” is because traditional government is apparently inadequate.

Because company towns worked out so well last time, I'm sure nothing bad will happen from the police, judges, zoning enforcement, and entire school staff working directly for a megacorporation that also owns all the lands and buildings and collects their own taxes on top of collecting their rent directly from the paycheck they give you.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/nevada/articles/2021-02-04/nevada-bill-would-allow-tech-companies-to-create-governments

Totally down for this. Why? Because if they fuck you over, you can sue them and expect something in return, unlike the government.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Company Judge: "If the company's involved in the lawsuit they're automatically in the right. If the company's not involved it's a waste of my time!"

Edit: Should probably point out, this actually grants the company their own government so they can also grant themselves immunity like any other county-level government can. You would have far less ability to sue them than you do now.

 

[JasonSanjo]

This seems oddly apropos...

Spoiler: The Outer Worlds

Hopefully it'll all die in the womb, though.

 

[Abhorsen]

Company Judge: "If the company's involved in the lawsuit they're automatically in the right. If the company's not involved it's a waste of my time!"

Edit: Should probably point out, this actually grants the company their own government so they can also grant themselves immunity like any other county-level government can. You would have far less ability to sue them than you do now.

First, that would get appealed, and I doubt they'd get sued in a local court. Also, note that the main benefit here isn't that corporations should run everything, its that governments are shit at running things, so I'd like to experiment with a corporation. If people don't like it, they don't have to move there.

 

[Bear Ribs]

First, that would get appealed, and I doubt they'd get sued in a local court. Also, note that the main benefit here isn't that corporations should run everything, its that governments are shit at running things, so I'd like to experiment with a corporation. If people don't like it, they don't have to move there.

Nope, local ordinance requires all complaints to go through company-mandated arbitration first and then local courts. Appealing beyond the local courts leads to same-day eviction from your company-owned home and arrest for violation of local ordinances.

We've literally done this dance to the end several times, this is no new experiment. We've seen where it leads and it's been illegal for a long time for very good reason.

The Battle of Blair Mountain. Workers tried to unionize and the local government immediately seized all their homes as company property. It literally reached the point of the company using private planes to drop poison gas and explosive bombs on union members. Appeal you say? The government took the company's side (they were part of the government after all) and granted them immunity, and used military hardware to assist in killing the unionizing workers. The company got everything it wanted and nearly a thousand surviving workers went to prison for daring to try to form a union.

How about The Battle of Matewan? It was the bloodiest internal fight the US saw that wasn't the Civil War. Workers tried to unionize and in response, the company sent in thugs to immediately evict them from their company-owned homes without notice. When a non-company-owned sheriff confronted them, the company thugs arrested him at gunpoint. Things escalated from there. Oh yeah, that Sheriff who tried to intervene? The company had him executed.

Want more? Columbine Mine Massacre, striking workers shot by state police sent to assist company-owned police, conflicting reports that machine guns were brought to bear on the workers. The Harlan County War, the National Guard was sent in... no, not to protect the workers, but to protect the legitimate government, AKA Company Interests. It goes on and on. That's what it means to have a corporation also own the government.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

Oh yeah, that Sheriff who tried to intervene? The company had him executed.

Just to be clear, this is *not* an exaggeration.

The Baldwin-Felts "detective agency" which was hired by the company as muscle attempted to fabricate evidence against the sheriff and his deputies in the wake of the shootout; when this failed and charges against the sheriff were dismissed for lack of evidence, Baldwin-Felts men gunned the sheriff and his head deputy down on the steps of the courthouse.

 

[Abhishekm]

The Battle of Blair Mountain. Workers tried to unionize and the local government immediately seized all their homes as company property. It literally reached the point of the company using private planes to drop poison gas and explosive bombs on union members. Appeal you say? The government took the company's side (they were part of the government after all) and granted them immunity, and used military hardware to assist in killing the unionizing workers. The company got everything it wanted and nearly a thousand surviving workers went to prison for daring to try to form a union.

Huh, exactly a hundred years ago. How ironic.

 

[Captain X]

I can't get over how the Democrats keep supporting the megacorporations they always claimed they were against. This is literally the cyberpunk future so many liberals railed against and claimed was the case in the '80s, back when Reagan was the "literally Hitler."

 

[Terthna]

Totally down for this. Why? Because if they fuck you over, you can sue them and expect something in return, unlike the government.

...And this is why I will never take libertarianism seriously as a political ideology; because it's ultimately just as short-sighted and ignorant of both human nature and historical precedent as communism is.

 

[Captain X]

Going to have to disagree with you on that. If you're meaning anarcho-capitalists, then I'd probably agree, but libertarianism on a whole, no.

 

[Rocinante]

Going to have to disagree with you on that. If you're meaning anarcho-capitalists, then I'd probably agree, but libertarianism on a whole, no.

Yeah.. there's balance and nuance.

One thing that's important to remember, is we don't need to fit in a box.

I lean libertarian, but there are taxes and government programs that I support. I just believe in keeping those minimal, and cutting waste, and keeping taxes low. Whereas others are all "taxation is theft!"

And then I'm pretty damn socially liberal, by more traditional standards. I don't even know what to call the left in America today, but that's not what I mean when I say socially liberal

 

[Captain X]

This is why I tend to call them the regressive left - so as to make it perfectly clear just who I'm talking about. The most generalized I get is by referring to them as leftists.

 

[Terthna]

Going to have to disagree with you on that. If you're meaning anarcho-capitalists, then I'd probably agree, but libertarianism on a whole, no.

In practice, libertarianism as a political ideology always seems to focus on anarcho-capitalism as the core of what it wants to push onto society; I understand it doesn't have to, but every single "Libertarian" I've talked to keeps pushing that angle.

 

[Captain X]

There is a strong element of that, but they're hardly representative. They're basically anarchists, period, and are the single biggest reason so many people seem to conflate libertarianism with anarchy.

 

[Navarro]

This seems oddly apropos...

Spoiler: The Outer Worlds

Hopefully it'll all die in the womb, though.

You didn't go with the obvious?

 

[Terthna]

There is a strong element of that, but they're hardly representative. They're basically anarchists, period, and are the single biggest reason so many people seem to conflate libertarianism with anarchy.

It doesn't really help when the only "Libertarian" we have on this forum seems to embody the anarchist stereotype.

 

[Captain X]

It doesn't really help when the only "Libertarian" we have on this forum seems to embody the anarchist stereotype.

Do myself and Rocinante not count for some reason?

 

[Terthna]

Do myself and Rocinante not count for some reason?

I've never actually heard either of you state outright that you consider yourselves capital L "Libertarians"; Abhorsen, meanwhile, has done so repeatedly.

 

[Captain X]

I have mixed feelings about it, tbh. I'm fairly moderate when it comes to the question of taxation and having entitlement programs, but when it comes to individual rights I'm full bore.

ETA: Honestly, the "no one hates libertarians like other libertarians" is a pretty popular meme for good reason. There are a lot of different schools of thought within libertarianism, and they often tend to conflict with one another.