The Mega Corporations
To be honest, my original drafts had much more exposition and explanation about the politics and economy of Zee's future in the 2040s. A dystopian vision of where I could imagine us ending up based on the trajectory we began along back in 2016/17 when I first started writing about Zee.
A lot of that information got edited out through various drafts for the sake of action, pacing and focusing on character. I told myself that there would be plenty of time for some of those details in future books. And I still plan to explore much of it.
Chief among those details was the Mega Corporations “the Megas” and their impact on both OVR World Online and the “real world” that Zee comes from. These are massive monopolistic corporations with tremendous wealth that have near global domination. The US Government (and other global governments) technically still exist, but they’re dependent and really under the thumb of the Megas.
In my novels, a confluence of disastrous events that would make the trials of 2020 look relatively peaceful have caused massive changes in the global structures of power, and most especially the US. Repeated global warming disasters, pandemics, corruption, and never ending wars led to back-to-back economic collapses. As a result, the dollar is essentially useless, as are most other government based currencies. Instead, the global economy relies on crypto-currency, called crypts or CC, as the only stable and valuable form of currency. The switch to CC was backed and financed by the Megas.
Most all government functions have been contracted out to the Megas, who then find every way to exploit those resources as possible and further enrich themselves. And sure, individuals get rich working for the Megas as employees, but the division of wealth in the US only grows more pronounced until the divide is nearly insurmountable. You can’t pull yourself up by your own bootstraps if the system is actively ripping your boots off your feet and breaking your ankles.
Compounding their financial control, they also have tremendous electoral power. At a certain point, the only “asset” many people had left to their name was their ability to vote. Driven by the already financially powerful Megas, the US Government enabled citizens to sell their right to vote off to the highest bidder. This made the voting franchise into a trade-able commodity which desperate citizens began to sell off. The Megas gobbled up large swaths of individual voter franchises, becoming increasingly powerful political units themselves. As a result, while some individuals, like Zee, have clung onto their right to vote, their single vote is generally drowned out by the massive voting blocks controlled by the Megas.
Political deals tend to be made in the boardroom at this point, and just get rubber stamped by the Congress and whatever figurehead has been installed as the President. And yet, global society remains deeply divided along political lines as well. Mostly, because it behooves the Megas to keep the people divided and fighting each other instead of the Megas themselves. And things like labor unions are definitely a thing of the past at this stage.
This brings us to talking about the individual Megas. I haven’t fleshed all of these out yet,, but here’s a few.
OzCo started out as a Social Media company which rose to dominance, eventually gobbling up all competing platforms. Then they financed and launched OVR World Online and knocked out all other VR platforms that were on the market. Of the Megas, they’re perhaps the biggest juggernaut. Their technology facilitates much of the generation of CC through the use of the processing power of the human brain when it’s plugged into OVR World Online. They also leveraged the vast wealth of personal information they had on their users to take over the US Government’s entire Criminal Justice system (Police, Courts and Prisons) as well as the Intelligence agencies. They’re a de facto government unto themselves.
PrimaTech was a biotech/pharmaceutical company that made a tremendous breakthrough in the 2030s, Nano-technology which they coupled with gene-therapies. Their technology led to the eradication of most diseases for those that could afford it. Their micro processing tech also gave them an edge in generating CC on their own when it became the dominant form of currency around the globe. When markets began to get divided up, they consumed the entire Healthcare system vertical. They are the only health insurance company. They own and run the hospitals. They own and run the medical schools. They own and run the pharmaceutical industry. If you’re rich enough, you don’t need to worry about disease, and you can even pay for genetic augmentation and other perks. If you’re not so fortunate, then you can plan on getting gouged for sub par care.
These are the big 2 that I’ve worked out for myself so far. I’ve alluded to others in Book One, and there are more to get into. Despite its dominance, OzCo doesn’t have the military contract, so the endless global wars are generally being fought by two or three ruthless mercenary corporations. And there are other segments of our government and economy that have been consumed by other megas, like Education, farming & agriculture, entertainment (outside of OVR World), etc etc etc.
Anyways, I hope someone finds all this interesting. I’m not an economist or poli-sci major. I have a Hospitality degree and spend most of my days changing diapers and slicing bananas, when I’m not pounding on a keyboard.
