https://www.wired.com/story/facebooks-libra-cryptocurrency-betrays-companys-true-ambitions/
Facebook’s Libra Cryptocurrency Betrays the Company’s True Ambitions
FTA:
Yes, you guessed it, I’m talking about Facebook. And what I’m guessing is that this is exactly what Facebook wants to be. Not a company, a country.
And while Facebook’s ambitions appear unsubtle (at least to me), the biggest tech companies are all building more and more advanced and immersive ecosystems. So maybe it’s time to start asking: What is the functional difference between a company and a country?
It’s not a crazy question: We’re already at a point where huge multinational tech monopsonies have so much power over the global economy that central bankers and regulators are starting to wonder if they even have the tools to set economic policy, like they used to in the old days.
>>exactly what Facebook wants to be. Not a company, a country.
A country with one political party. And that party is definitely NOT conservative.
Nice word! I rarely run across a word in FR that I don't know, but I had to look that one up.
“So maybe it’s time to start asking: What is the functional difference between a company and a country?”
A company, taking this to mean corporation, is a legal person, a single person.
>> Yes, you guessed it, I’m talking about Facebook. And what I’m guessing is that this is exactly what Facebook wants to be. Not a company, a country.
I have thought about that in the past in regard to the Palestinians. Can you be a country without physical land?
I have thought about that in the past in regard to the deep divide in the US. Could we have 2 countries simultaneously occupying our land? I’ve thought about a system where the socialists get what they want, but just don’t get to impose it on the rest of us! Ok, all you socialists, if that’s what you want, here’s a big pot and you can all throw your money in and it will be divided equally. So sign up for that and you get free stuff, so long as the money in the pot holds out. But don’t sign up for that and you get to keep your money, much lower taxes, you have to provide for your own retirement, health care, insurance, etc.
It would be a GREAT experiment! It would be especially fun to see who signed up for socialism and who didn’t. All those rich people clamoring about the poor! Are they going to volunteer to pool their money? Or were they all talk and hoping for someone else’s money to fund their pipe dreams? Middle class taxpayer money. How long would all that last until the pot ran dry. I’d bet not long. I’d bet within a year it would be starting to crumble as the few that were working found out they were carrying the slugs on their backs.
As for FB, I don’t think they want to be a country. Not one of many anyway. I think they want to be dictators of the world. I think that’s what the story of the Tower of Babel warned us against.