[agwa]

Imagine this blog post but with Google replaced with Exxon Mobil (which has an even higher market cap), and Google-friendly public policy replaced with Exxon Mobil-friendly public policy.

There's a damn good reason we don't want corporations to be able to "buy" cities.

[ams6110]

Yeah we tried company towns. Didn't work so well.

[sp332]

I have heard of one company town that worked: Rochester, New York and the Eastman Kodak company. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/nyregion/despite-long-slid... But it's the only one I've ever heard of.

[mrb]

In China, it seems to work well to the financial benefit of the company. There are companies owning entire "cities" with houses for the employees, farms to produce eggs, schools for the kids, etc.

[rmc]

Or China is censoring all the news. After all, Big Brother has increased the chocolate ratio to 20 grammes per week!

[tptacek]

Among them that doing so would tend to "bankrupt" the corporation.