Our future: Indentured servitude to corporations?

Photo by Francois Hoang on Unsplash

Cue Blade Runner imagery and the haunting Vangelis soundtrack.

Throughout history have existed corporate towns whose entire population’s lives centered on their job at the company. In many cases, little better than indentured servitude. The US has a unique brand of capitalism that gifts incredible power into the hands of corporations. Arguably, this is what made this nation prosperous, and that may be true. It has spurred high levels of employment and innovation to make much of the world jealous.

However, in recent decades, the rotten, corrupt underbelly of corporatism is coming into view. Our future is likely the destruction of our freedoms in the name of the almighty profit. Alas, not the profit of the common man, but that of the CEOs, the billionaires. I’m pretty sure this ridiculous disparity of wealth was never the intention of capitalism.

Is our future Blade Runner? (Admittedly, it’s not a good analogy of this article, but the visuals are strong.)

Corporate Towns in history

Since the industrial revolution, we estimate there have been over 2,000 corporate towns in the US. The most familiar is Hershey, Pennsylvania, established by the chocolate tycoon, Milton Hershey. This was a veritable paradise compared to most. Corporate housing…