> You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels.

It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!

Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?

You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.

What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.

We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality -- one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.

—- From the movie Network, 1976

I'm guessing this is because corporations will still obviously be different from governments. For one thing they won't have cops arresting you.

Governments keep control on people by the usage of force, but corporations have the means to control people by the use of pleasure. You might not get in jail but if you're not allowed to go where you want/do what you want/talk to who you want, if your life revolves around a single thing and that is removed from you, would you still do it ?

This comic about Orwell's and Huxley's vision of things really lays it in simple terms (https://twistedsifter.com/2010/06/the-saturday-strip-week-13...). The source is, of course, very interesting to read.

> would you still do it?

Between "do it" and "don't do it"? Well obviously no. But compared to getting thrown in jail? Obviously it's better?

Of course the difference in "punishement" is huge, but the important and scary part is that corporations can have a huge control on how people behave without any threat other than "you won't be able to use our service". That was my point.

How can you be sure - if they almost become quasi-goverments - they will surely have quasi-law-enforcement?

A ban by facebook could literally be lifethreatening?

> How can you be sure

Same way I can be "sure" my bank is going to keep my money safe and give it to me when I need it?

Could you be more clear about your intended meaning. From this you might mean "I can't be sure", or you might mean "the government will step in to prevent it", or you might actually think your bank will keep your money safe, or ...

Do I have to pick one?

Now you're just trolling.

Wasn't intending to. I'm pretty serious.

While true now, remember that companies used to own armies[1] and territories[2]. Their motives -- shareholder profit -- have not changed. They do and will strive to grow their power.

It's not a stretch from today to imagine living on company-built cities with private security, paying rent and utilities to the company, with contracts and EULAs serving as laws in all but name.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_rule_in_India

They do though.

Don’t be so sure.