It’s going to be a Network State. Trump’s Agenda 47, which includes so-called Freedom Cities for America—think company towns. Thanks for this information!
I believe the article linked below will clarify Tina’s comment
The president and his Silicon Valley oligarch pals want to bring back the bad old “company towns” of yesteryear with a fresh coat of modern cryptofascist varnish.
Rather than cryptofascist, I would use technocratic management- But it’s all good, cryptofascist is accurate as well
Tech bros love to repackage old ideas as innovation. We’ve all seen it. But their latest foray into disruption no one else wants, the so-called “network state” and its constellation of start-up cities, deserves our attention. This notion has been embraced by President Donald Trump, who has rechristened them “freedom cities.” In reality, the scheme is a techno-fascist vision of the future that’s been quietly but persistently pushed and funded by billionaires such as Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Brian Armstrong, and Sam Altman for years. Despite the shiny marketing materials for places like Próspera and California Forever, which make outlandish promises of futuristic utopias, the start-up city as a concept is a modern, ketamine-infused repackaging of something that flopped into obsolescence long ago: the company town.
And I would know. I grew up in a coal-mining town in Southwestern Wyoming and compiled an oral history of the place called Out Here On Our Own. I talked to multiple people who grew up in the old coal camps where one company owned and controlled everything. The surveillance, the practice of paying workers in dubious currency (commonly referred to as “scrip”), and the ultimate goal of creating small fiefdoms for company masters—it’s all been done, and to horrific effect. From staggering rates of suicide and addiction to a constant sense of fear among citizens, the trauma of living in a company town cascades through generations.
The company town framework gained steam during the Industrial Revolution. Pullman, Illinois, is a notorious American example. George Pullman, who owned Pullman Palace Car Company, forced people to work interminable hours in unforgiving factory conditions, and he paid them in scrip that was worthless outside his own stores. In 1893, Pullman cut workers’ wages by 25 percent without lowering rent on their homes—not to mention the grocery prices in those same company stores—which led to fierce labor organization efforts and the bloodiest strike America had seen.
The Pullman strike showed the world that the company town was a doomed experiment in human control. But the industrialists of the time were every bit as hubristic as today’s tech oligarchs. They saw Pullman as a barometer for how much cruelty workers would endure before revolting. The profit margins were too enticing to abandon the model altogether, so company owners built fiefdoms across the country, albeit in slightly less extreme forms. The end result was always the same: worker organization—and often violent revolt.
Skipped a bunch of paragraphs to include this last one immediately below, while encouraging those interested to read the linked article, entirely
The network state movement goes well beyond those prior flirtations: It seeks to form a collection of corporately owned charter cities where regulation doesn’t exist. This idea started gaining momentum with the publication of Silicon Valley gadabout Balaji Srinivasan’s book, The Network State, which put him firmly in the company of those tech barons who’ve made democracy itself a target of their ire.
You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter, don’t you call me, ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store
The company store, in the company town- Freedom City is such a misleading label, indeed. But company town’s carry a lot of negative baggage, so rebranding the same tyrannical ideas would be necessary.
One reply on “Dystopia; Trump’s Freedom Cities aka Company Town”
Thank you!