First the bad news. Corporate power, in the shape of multinational corporations, has far outstripped the physical and legal capabilities of the national sovereign government. Of the largest 50 economic entities in the world, eight are corporates. Of the top 175, it is 112. Walmart is larger in terms of income than Austria, South Africa and Qatar. Vodafone and Apple, meanwhile, effectively run larger economies than most of the developing world.
The good news is these companies still have to function within the geographical and legal constraints of sovereign land. Unless they can somehow figure out a way to club together and purchase a friendly, habitable planet to which they can relocate, and do business with Earth from a non-tax-paying offshore world, their power can be curbed. They are, as the economist DH Robertson described as far back as 1937, “islands of conscious power in an ocean of unconscious cooperation”.
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