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from the company-towns-and-company-scrip dept.
Nevada bill would allow tech companies to create governments:
Planned legislation to establish new business areas in Nevada would allow technology companies to effectively form separate local governments.
Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak announced a plan to launch so-called Innovation Zones in Nevada to jumpstart the state's economy by attracting technology firms, Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Wednesday.
The zones would permit companies with large areas of land to form governments carrying the same authority as counties, including the ability to impose taxes, form school districts and courts and provide government services.
The measure to further economic development with the "alternative form of local government" has not yet been introduced in the Legislature.
[...] The governor's economic development office did not respond to questions about the zones Wednesday.
(Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Saturday February 06 2021, @09:34PM
Go back to the 1800s'. Look up the coal police. You had these towns where you would be kept in debt forever, since you had to rent the pickax, rent your sleeping berth, pay for food from the company owned store, with *company* money. You got paid in company money, not US currency. If you dared to unionize and try to fight back, the companies would hire law enforcement to moonlight as paid enforcers that often murdered people. Since they were working for the coal companies, they were called the coal police.
I forgot the name of the movie, but it had The Rock in it along with Christopher Walken. Set in South America, and was pretty much an analogue to what happened here in the US in the 1800's. That was back around the Wild West times.
We don't want to move backwards to that shit. Women and children were murdered in the street in the fight for the 10 hour day. It took some time after that before we even got the to the idea we take for granted now, the 8 hour day. Likewise, we take for granted now that child labor is illegal, or at least heavily regulated.
The move to give corporations power like that, sounds like exactly the steps necessary to create those dystopian futures we see on TV. Where people in debt that cannot pay, have control mechanisms injected into the back of their neck, and then forced to sit as a robot in a manufacturing plant. Probably earning X, which is Y-Z, with Y being what is needed to get out of debt, and Z is what is tacked onto Y at the end of the day.
In other words, it's one step towards a modified form of slavery where the idea that the elites get 90% of all production is baked deeply into the system itself.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.