[seiji]

Suggestions on how we could pull that off are welcome.

That's the problem, isn't it? Is such a thing even accomplishable?

We're teetering on an edge. We don't know if we are creating a future of clean and shiny and modern technology for everybody or if we're creating a dirty and scarred and run down begging-for-please-schedule-me-doctor services for non-millionares in society. More technological improvements are needed before we can uplift everybody into Comfort and Prosperity, but in the meantime, do we just let those who aren't us suffer?

There are probably half a dozen significant projects with 100x to 1000x personal, life-impacting ROI we could undertake as a society, but there's nobody strong enough to advance our agendas.

[ChuckMcM]

Yes it is (the problem).

In one future the world is ruled by corporations, public services such as internet, medical care, and transportation are provided by them as long as you follow their rules.

In one future the governments seize corporate earnings through taxation to fund basic services resulting in a incestuous and tense symbiotic relationship between companies and governments.

Depending on which side of the bed I wake up on I think one is more likely than the other.

[pekk]

Corporations are already paying taxes pretty much the world over, for a very long time now. Why characterize this normal, standard, nearly universal policy as "incestuous and tense"? Why is this "seizing" and not just normal tax paying?

[ChuckMcM]

Heh, you missed the drama of the whole "fair share" taxes debate that Google, Apple, and others are embroiled in both in the UK and the US? How about the Amazon sales tax debate?

Corporations do pay taxes, governments around the world are girding themselves to demand they pay even more taxes. That was the 'tenseness' of which I spoke.