[X] My Assistant

[fistandantilus4....]

Understood. As I said, that is pretty tame, but it's basically anything that might get someone busted if their bass or coworker was to walk by and look over their shoulder. That's our concern. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Lord Ben]

GE would be a good megacorp. They're much bigger than wal-mart.

Or simply large banks. There are numerous banks around the world with over 1 trillion dollars in assets.

[fistandantilus4....]

If Viacom and Disney would merge, that'd make a nice and huge corp.

[kzt]

Rule 1: never attack a neutral country, i would gladly sacrifice some forests and cities to have the entire EU up your ass

The French threat of the "Strongly Worded Letter" and the German warning of "Please don't do nasty things" pleas terrify the entire world. They couldn't deal with the Serbia!! without the US. Geez.

[Lionhearted]

Talking megacorps.. am I the only one thinking microsoft?

[Lord Ben]

Talking megacorps.. am I the only one thinking microsoft?

Not the only, but it's silly. Wal-mart doesn't produce anything on their own. They're strictly a retail store. Not even close to megacorp status.

[Rasumichin]

I don't think we're missing that fact, but it's just the title of many facets, the rubber stamp on what a megacorp is.

But extraterritoriality is the only difference between real life and SR corporations that is not just one of scale, but an actual qualitative difference.
I don't want to dismiss quantitative differences, but still, extraterritoriality is the only point where we can clearly draw the line, where we can say "this hasn't happened in similar, albeit less drastic ways before."
Where it becomes evident that we are not just talking about a really big company, but about something new, about the next step in economic evolution.

All of the other stuff, from taking over entire towns, even states, to building up private armies, from forming corporate enclaves all the way down to whacky stuff like employees singing the corporate anthem at the beginning of a new work day- is already there.
As well as vertical monopolies, agglomeration of wealth in smaller and smaller numbers of big players and increasing control over the public opinion.

There's no ten corporations controlling more than half of the world economy, okay, that's a notable quantitative difference, but i don't see how, of all existing companies, effin' WalMart should come close to such a degree of dominance over international markets.

[Cthulhudreams]

GE would be a good megacorp. They're much bigger than wal-mart.

Or simply large banks. There are numerous banks around the world with over 1 trillion dollars in assets.

Damnit, you beat me too it - General Electric is clearly the closest thing currently to a megacorp, but citigroup might be close.

[Lionhearted]

http://www.corporations.org/system/top100.html
now this is kinda scary, top 100 economic entities, (2000 although) rather intimidating still that GM ranks 23 (Right before denmark) and btw, from my point of view.. its already companies that runs the world, what else is the power behind the throne?

[Lord Ben]

what else is the power behind the throne?

Consumers. Corporations might have many advantages, but if people don't like Zune's over Ipods they won't buy them even if big bad Microsoft sells them.

And all of the top 20 but China (as far as I'm aware) have some type of elected government.

[Lionhearted]

Consumers. Corporations might have many advantages, but if people don't like Zune's over Ipods they won't buy them even if big bad Microsoft sells them.

And all of the top 20 but China (as far as I'm aware) have some type of elected government.

Consumers who live to work rather than work to live?
its really an evil circle which the only benefitors is.. well, people with enough money to not care, or people with nothing but lives aside from the system (and they arent really benefiting from the system)
But even the mega multimillonaires are stuck in the evil circle of consuming

You work to A) get the bare nessecities (singing bear making entrance) B) get resources for R&R
you work for oh! I know, the corperations! now thats what i call a threesome
the corperations screw you of you of money who you work for them to gain, just so that you can continue to live and make more money.. what's the purpose of that?
42!
no... that doesnt work

[Rasumichin]

And all of the top 20 but China (as far as I'm aware) have some type of elected government.

In the case of Russia, you'd have to stretch "some type" a bit...

[Fortune]

And if you ask me, THIS (NSFW demanded) Guess what... if it's 'NSFW', it doesn't need to get linked here. is the real swedish treasure cove

I demand linkage! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

Edit: Oh wait, it was tame? Never mind.

[nathanross]

Talking megacorps.. am I the only one thinking microsoft?

Beat me to it.

I sincerely recall that what really boosted the Mega Corps to world dominance was their complete domination of the third-world. Now, many will say that they saved millions of lives, bringing medicine and technology to them, but they also enslaved them in the same illusion of capitalism. I recently watched the Bill Gates speach at the Davos World Economic Forum, and he is promoting the production of goods that will make many millions, if not BILLIONS more people consumers.

Bill Gates Davos Speech

Now, life is a good thing (I think that is a fact that can commonly be agreed upon). Im not necessarily saying that all the people's lives that may be saved from such action is a bad thing. But at what point do we draw the line between Freedom and Life?

As players of Shadowrun, we exist outside of, and yet sometimes aspire to be a part of this society that provides for us at the same time enslaving us with the desire for more, that keeps us working from birth till death and consumes our energy like a giant power plant. When the whole world is one, who will be at the top?

I think Miscrosoft is leading the way towards becoming our first AAA.

[imperialus]

Swedes! Bah!

Actually didn't you guys kick the crap out of the Nazi's and the Russian in a 20 year time span?

Naww you're thinking of the Finns. the Swedes folded like a stack of cards. Their last claim to military fame was when Gustavus Adolphus went south and started kicking the crap out of all the Holy Roman Empire. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Lionhearted]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Empire
now lets drop this, and stay on topic.

That Gates speech was intruiging, not only does it further my view that capitalism is evil, It also clearly proves that either Mr Gates is in denial or trying to trick the system.. hmm, wonder what's he is up to

[MaxMahem]

It depends upon how you want to measure a corporation. However by most measures Wal-mart is indeed currently the largest company in the world. It employs more people, and generates more revenue (ie number of sales) than any other corporation in the world. Its not the most profitable however, that honer currently belongs to Exxon-Shell and the rest of the oil companies. GE is probably the largest widely diversified corporation (they have their fingers in all sorts of pies), and some Japanese corps incorporates more of the SR ideal of corporate culture (living on site and what not).

But honestly no current corporation really compares with SR mega-corps. The best modern day comparisons are probably the government. The US Government is one of the worlds largest employer and collects the most revenue (taxes) though isn't especially profitable (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) . It of course has its own armed forces, some manufacturing facilities, and housing. It certainly contracts out huge portions of business. And while not extra-territorial, nations are obviously currently sovereign over territory they control.

I suppose some of the mega-coprs of old like Standard Oil, Union Pacific, or especialy the East India Company (and other similar ventures) were pretty close to the idea of a mega-corp. Large, powerful, fingers in many pies, sovereign (at least partially) over their territory, and diversified. Also they were run as corporations (with shareholders and the like) unlike modern governments.

[Kingmaker]

That Gates speech was intruiging, not only does it further my view that capitalism is evil, It also clearly proves that either Mr Gates is in denial or trying to trick the system.. hmm, wonder what's he is up to

What alternative would you recommend to capitalism? Socialism? Don't make me laugh. Discredited by countless failures around the globe. Capitalism is far from perfect, given the difficulties of working within reality, but the alternatives are much worse.
[/rant]

What makes a megacorp IMO is the sovereignty and the military. To me at least, a Megacorp is essentially a government that makes a profit, and I can't see modern corporations lining up to shoulder even a fraction of the burdens of sovereignty.

In addition, it seems that very few modern corps have anywhere close to the diversity that the Shadowrun megacorps have. For example, isn't ARES involved guns, vehicles, aerospace, security, construction, and some more that I can't think of. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a modern corp within anywhere close to that kind of diversity.

[Lionhearted]

Give you a call when I find a working solution, although socialism could work if humans werent ultimately so un-altruistic
(read: Egoistic)

[nezumi]

I strongly disagree about Microsoft. Beyond computer software, the only thing they've expanded into is media through NBC. While they have offices overseas, their portfolio is very narrow.

[JesterX]

Actually, Walmart and Microsoft are actually very SMALL businesses... sure, their revenues are quite high but they are still small

Tata (an Indian corp) and a lot of asian companies are a *LOT* bigger.

Also, you might want to take a look at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conglomerates

[Kagetenshi]

What alternative would you recommend to capitalism? Socialism? Don't make me laugh. Discredited by countless failures around the globe. Capitalism is far from perfect, given the difficulties of working within reality, but the alternatives are much worse.
[/rant]

Yeah, I know! Man, every time I think about the hellhole Sweden is today, I think about how utterly horrible it would be if I lived in a country like that.

Wait, what?

~J

Postscript: yes, it's a social democracy, not a pure socialist structure.

[Lionhearted]

China anyone? as far as I know Communism counts under socialism
(on the paper the fastest growing economy in the world..)
and sweden is no longer governed by the socialdemocrats, we got a conservative(ish) reign right now

[JesterX]

Look at this one!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThyssenKrupp

[Daddy's Litt...]

The big thing for the megas is that they are diversified. They are in different areas so cannot be pigeon holed.
Microsoft is rich and powerful but very tightly focused.
Viacom is a bit more spread out.
GE is a good example since they also own, I think, one of the US TV networks.
Disney is working that way doing films, home entertainment, cruise lines and other theme parks but they need to diversify a little. Like maybe manufacturing vehicals then heavy industry building to sell to others. (Like their monorails)