The extended recession we have been experiencing here in the States is leading us up to the rise of the mega-corporation. Job creation has been so poor and the federal government has been so disconnected from this task that the people have been beholden to the mega-corps for their economic well being. The mega-corps are powerful because they have control of horizontal and vertical industries.
Take McDonald’s for instance. It’s not simply enough to dot the cityscape and the suburbs with restaurants. I may have passed a hundred McDonald’s installations yesterday on my trip through the Bronx. McDonald’s also owns the shipping containers and the suppliers. The paper cartons that their products are sold in are created in McDonald’s own papermills. The only thing McDonald’s might outsource would be the advertising campaigns.
The advantage to all of McDonald’s vertical integration is that the mega-corp can better control their pricepoint at the consumer stage. Hence, the McD Dollar Menu and the fact it has remained in effect for several years. I’m not totally against monopolies either. Snce we are a capitalistic nation one of the economic systems natural by-products is the creation of a monopoly. Just study how the banking system was collapsing onto itself. Still there is something sinister that underlies the mega-corporation.
Everyone loves to shit on Wal-Mart almost as much as they love to shit on McDonald’s, but Wal-Mart is one of my favorite mega-corps. Full disclosure: Wal-Mart sells the best action fugures on the planet. When I’m in Atlanta I might buy several hundred dollars worth of Star Wars and Marvel Legends figures. Wal-Mart’s industrials produces the majority of goods sold in Wal-Mart stores. They could literally only sell Wal-Mart shit if they wanted to. Wal-Mart is far from the most evil mega-corp in my opinion. That would be Walt Disney Co.
Not just because in a recession they had the billions to plunk down and acquire Marvel Comics, but because of the way they administer the area in Florida that they own. Disney has their own laws on their property and a quasi-government in place. I’m sure they have their scientists working on human cloning and cryogenics. The only thing left for Disney is to form their own standing para-military army. I’m sure it’s coming.
PatLabor Disney.
