Some of the Wilder Theories from 20th Century Science Fiction May be Turning into Fact

MORE than 25 years ago, science fiction writers were imagining a world with no formal governments which was ruled by a number of mega-rich corporations who formed alliances and fought each other with private armies.

This was described as a dystopian future and whilst it made good reading, not that many people actually expected it to happen but when you consider that a large number of corporations are now worth more than many nations (some of them not so small), then you have to wonder about the future.

The coronavirus, Covid-19 pandemic has seen shares plummet and whilst in previous financial downturns in both 2001 and 2008, many of the tech companies who were still building their empires made few acquisitions, now it’s quite different.

It is argued that President Trump has made it easier for the large corporations to gobble up competitors without risk of antitrust review and until the American government gives teeth to its competition regulators, these giant US based corporations can more or less do as they like.

The really big boys now are Alphabet (which owns Google), Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft and they are spending money taking over large companies and also small start-ups whilst not sticking within their ‘tech industries’ but expanding into new areas of business.

There was an old economic adage along the lines of ‘if you don’t expand, you can only go backwards’ and it seems that they have taken this to heart with a vengeance.

There is not much that any individual can do about this and in many cases, those working for the mega-corporations enjoy decent working conditions and are relatively well paid but the fact remains that money talks but in this case you can see it is walking into the future as well.

Written by

John Smith

Married to Ophelia in Gibraltar in 1978, John has spent much of his life travelling on security print and minting business and visited every continent except Antarctica. Having retired several years ago, the couple moved to their house in Estepona and John became a regular news writer for the EWN Media Group taking particular interest in Finance, Gibraltar and Costa del Sol Social Scene. Currently he is acting as Editorial Consultant for the paper helping to shape its future development. Share your story with us by emailing newsdesk@euroweeklynews.com, by calling +34 951 38 61 61 or by messaging our Facebook page www.facebook.com/EuroWeeklyNews

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