So how long until we really have "Omni Consumer Products"?

[jmowreader]

Robocop fans remember "Omni Consumer Products," the megacorporation that made everything everyone would ever need, was the country's sole defense contractor (as Dick Jones said to Clarence Boddicker, "we practically are the military"), ran the prisons, hospitals and schools, took over Detroit's police force and privatized a major American city.

So where are we now? Massive consolidations in the defense industry have left us with just a few huge contractors rather than the thousands of small ones--and no, I'm not forgetting the mercenaries employed by companies like Xe (Blackwater), KBR and DynCorp. The prisons are privatized. "No Child Left Behind" and "Race to the Top" are privatizing public education. There always HAVE been private hospitals, and they're starting to build networks--the Cleveland Clinic runs the hospital in Fayetteville, NC, for instance. Consumer product lines are being purchased by huge companies--for instance, most of the pet food in America is made by three companies (Purina, Del Monte and Menu Foods). The retail channel has condensed--instead of thousands of small businesses, there are relatively few superstore chains with their own distribution networks.

And thanks to five right-wing men on the Supreme Court, now it's legal for all these huge companies to control the political process. Since they can do that, is there anything stopping them from packing, say, the LA City Council with their people then going on a campaign of denigrating the cops and fire department to the point where the citizens "demand" they be privatized? And once LA's is private, it goes on from there.

[phantom power]

1. Arguably, we're about there already. It's just not yet official.

[DarthDem]

2. Yes, There's Plenty to Stop That

Supreme Court decisions - - with the obvious exception of Bush v. Gore - - never really have the sweeping, dramatic impact that anxious observers claim. And this one won't either. Just because corporations can flood the election with money doesn't mean that they will. And I'm not convinced that the citizenry will listen anyway. How did all those PACs and 527s do for McCain?

The rest of your post is just drama.

[Alexander]

3. Don't forget OCP deliberately put cops in harm's way to make Robocop.

They transferred Alex Murphy out of a safer precinct just to increase the chance of him getting killed and being a candidate for the Robocop program.

After ED-209 shot that employee all to hell, Dick Jones just called it a "glitch".

Meaning in this future, nobody cared about the lives of human beings. That sounds pretty close to where we are right now.

When did Robocop even take place, wasn't it the 2010s-2020s?

[jmowreader]

9. Yes, I remember that

"Tell me more, Mr. Morton. How long will it take?"

'We've restructured the police department to put prime candidates in risk positions. We're confident we can go to prototype within, say, 90 days.'

"Good, good. Get your staff together. I'll expect a full presentation within 15 minutes."

[Alexander]

10. We've even got the vehicles with really shitty gas mileage.

The only thing missing are the orbital defense platforms.

[endless october]

4. i'd buy that for a dollar.

[derby378]

6. We've had our shots!

:rofl:

[YOY]

5. I'm not down with OCP.

n/t

[ProdigalJunkMail]

12. NICE... n/t

[YOY]

13. Yeah you know me...

n.t.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

14. even better... n/t

[zbdent]

7. Buy N Large ...

except, when you get back to Earth ... you're handed a huge bill ...

"Red is the new Blue" ... sounds like "Ditto" to me ...

[lapfog_1]

8. We've blown right through that phase

and now we are in the future as predicted by another classic movie, "The Grove Tube" and it's ubiquitous corporate overlord, the Uranus Corporation.

Always remember, "Things come out a little different at Uranus".



"Brown 25"

[vicdoc]

11. Thank you for your cooperation....