The Last Dollar On Earth

The Last Dollar On Earth

President Pontiac’s organisation STOIM is a huge space and technologies organisation, but it was privatised many years ago, has had capital funded by most nations who wanted to benefit from involvement in space and technological cutting edge. States like the US, Europe, UK, Russia, India and China have all put in money, but none of them have predominance separately, and unless they all work together with other institutional or individual shareholders’ votes they cannot control this machinelike private organisation. No state can afford to buck the power of this huge corporation, and the President of it assumes a de facto power which is far greater than any President or Prime Minister of any investor nation. The worldwide web is effectively controlled by this huge super corporation, by its many parts.

Rastion has made money out of many businesses. His enterprises favour each other in their contracts and are ruthlessly aggressive in stifling their opponents in price wars and ruthless competition. It has grown aggressively and exists all over the world. It now runs schools, hospitals, prison services and all sorts of enterprises.

Director Valery of Oleandus Corporation has newspapers, web media and arms industries, they have made much money from the terrorist instabilities and the rivalry of nations, which it is in their interest to perpetuate.

“I propose a merger,” suggested the most ruthless businessman of present times, Roberto Rastion the head of the huge Rastion Organisation. Inheritor of great family wealth, he had used his singleminded business approach as if it were a game, in aggressively expanding its size, by takeover, merger and amalgamation, building up wealth in a way which was focussed upon taking over or absorbing opponents, until the organisation became so big it was far larger in value than many of the leading states of the world. He proposed a merger with the publicly supported STOIM Organisation, and with Oleandus Corporation to go even bigger. They were chasing control over the last dollar on earth!

Finally the deal was done, the final deal – the one which was going to bring all the profits of the world together into one super combined organisation! All the 3 main organisations, administered by Roberto Rastion, President Pontiac, and Director Valery were now combining into one, merging, sharing profits.. They were making money out of workers, customers, tenants and governments. Valery’s military contracts with governments now stretched to medical and security sectors. The taxpayers of many countries were funding Oleandus contracts. Paid company officials subverted the civil services and the politicians. The huge super company dominates politics and society with its advertising monopolies. As they gradually increased their control of everything they used backdoor circumventions and corruptions to influence governments. Public sector cutbacks reduced the effectiveness of the auditors. In these ways governments were unable to protect themselves or the economies in their care from the super monopolies.

The significance of the event was not lost upon the three super executives. With this merger the holding companies would become one, owning virtually all the significant companies of the world, having the power to virtually dictate government policies in practice. Presidents and Prime Ministers, Dictators and Generals, all have to bow to the economics of control, the power of money. If the gigantic corporation pays most of the taxes and runs all the operations of society, who can stand up to the big bosses?

Like Kings and Princes the super executives reigned over humanity, bound perhaps by their own rules, and also by each other. They had created the new society, and for better or worse they would have to steer it. Old ideas such as democracy or idealism were no longer relevant.

Roberto Rastion listened as his managers brought in their reports, the results of the last year’s trading, quarterly reports and reports of the different sectors. It seemed that many sectors were showing reducing profits in comparison to the last few bumper years. How could this be? There were no competitors outside the umbrella group, none of any significance. He felt cheated. He had taken the organisation this far only to find the benefits were less than planned. Could it be that corruption was eating away at profits, or were health and safety and employment rules and so on having an effect?

All organisations might be owned by the super company, but there was still ‘competition’ within the system. The companies played their branches off against each other, as the plan had always been. Underperforming sections were made more efficient, or dismantled periodically. Workers would never be allowed to get too soft or too comfortable. Perhaps workers generally were aware that the supercompany owned everything of value and thought they should not need to take competition too seriously. Perhaps consumers were losing their desire for material possessions, given that they were working as hard as ever. Something was definitely up. He resolved to do something about it. Secretly he was pleased. He liked to feel there was still something to struggle for.

As the supermultinational was not a government itself and was only able to control governments, not to actually be a government or to ‘feel’ like a government it did not feel any responsibility towards the citizens of the many nations it effectively controlled. Unemployment had not been the concern of its constituent parts as it had gradually formed and grown in competition where the fittest companies survived and the weakest went to the wall. Under its hegemony the supermultinational employed the vast majority of all workers in the world, whether through employment agencies or directly. Outside their control were those black market workers who professed to have skills in practical abilities such as plumbing or repairing things, gardening, or window cleaning. These ‘unofficial’ workers were uncertified, unreliable, unqualified, and in many cases illegal, as the super company sought to close all the loopholes and stretch its tentacles into every single pie. Inevitably the result of the almost total ownership of everything was that large numbers of potential workers could not be employed. The numbers of underqualified potential workers was soaring as the supercompany raised the benchmarks of ability and standard for the workers it chose to employ. A rising pool of potential workers existed, growing larger as competition effectively disappeared, as the company took over every activity in the world economy.

A sizeable class of unemployed developed, growing quickly, unqualified to make anything of their lives in the perfect new world the super company was creating. They were not much use for anything, Roberto Rastion thought, but if they became too large in numbers would that not create opportunities for an alternative economy uncontrolled by the supercompany to be created? He spoke to Director Valery and President Pontiac, and they began to consider what to do. One of them suggested they put the unemployed into work camps where they could be used to create value and reduce costs to the supercompany, they would be worth at least the cost of the food they would eat.