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Ive been waiting for you to join with ground news. i figured they would have reached out by now, im jsut glad you finally took the initive. thank you greatly for the mission your on, i respect it sooooooo much. its funny, i kinda can tell anymore. on the subject of SW, can we talk abit about High Republic soon? im excited for eye of th storm!
You mentioned being able to use it for free but after signing in it asked me to choose three things minimum that I’m interested in and then once I click continue prompts me to buy premium or skip it skip it goes back to pick three I can’t continue without buying
tiny question: when the Empire fell, did Mon Mothma find ways to prevent those mega-monopolies from re-forming, or did she harness them, or...? thank you.
Yea thats crazy that they could scale their manufacturing process to that level and have a complete monopoly on the market oh wait, its a fictional story
6:08 The blockade of Naboo WAS legal. Admittedly pretty dystopian that a corporation can legally block trade and travel with a sovereign planet, but several characters on both sides admit, that the blockade itself doesn't violate any laws. What was illegal, was landing troops on the planet surface ie invading it.
If only they had video cameras on Naboo, then they could've shown the Senate that they really were being invaded by the Trade Federation, there wouldn't be a need to appoint a commission to prove the validity of Amidala's accusations and Chancellor Vallurum would've made a decision right then and there, and his leadership wouldn't be challenged, so no Palpatine and no clone wars.
Capitalism is bad, m'kay. Tbh, palpatine had the right in destroying this system. It was horrifically unable to deal with any democratic crisis at all. Its just a shame he was also so fond of...you know, genocide and such.
A lot of those corporations have A LOT of power and control. That’s why some people who support the CIS confuse me, despite me being a big fan of the CIS
@@blackblack1167I think people love the worlds that made up the government of the CIS who had understandable grievances with the Republic. The council and Military were greedy barbarians.
Wasn't one of point of the Clone wars to have the monopolies side against the Republic so they could be nationalised at the end of the war? Like half the point was to move to a planned economy so no one could challenge the Empire. I know disney kind of missed that whole point in their movies/shows (other than Andor) Was clearly what Lucas was going for though.
It’s easier to have all these monopolies seen as war mongers and deserving of being nationalized. If they sided with the republic they’d be seen in a better light as helping to win the war
@@adamallen7070 One of the reasons (aside from the engineering geniuses at their disposal) as to why the Kuat Drive Yards remained independent corporations after the war. Well, semi-independent anyway..
The Banking Clan were however amazing for keeping inflation at _zero percent._ The value of a credit has held steady for over a thousand years - just look at the sticker price of ships over that time scale as an example.
zero percent inflation is incredibly terrible and dangerous. 3% inflation is considered healthy give real life century average inflation hangs around 3%. When inflation goes below 3% the economy is not healthy and prone to explosive growth, but the end result is that the market always balances, so you're gonna get that 9%+ inflation to balance it.
You know one great example that could've shown just how far and wide corporations can go and how powerful they can get is the Tagge Corporation, or TaggeCo. They are in literally every conceivable industry where you can make credits. There's a slice of the galaxy called Tagge Space and they own entire star systems. It's wild.
When I go play SWTOR, it doesn't matter which side I pick, I will never betray the one thing that AAALL Classes have: the credits-based economy. Any new lightsaber, blaster, vehicle and armor that is not some Quest reward, those are all something you pay for with the exact same currency. *Unless you decide to purchase Cartel Coins and support that life-sucking system of them goddamn Hutts.*
One idea for a follow up vid to this might be looking at the Corporate Sector and the Corporate Sector Authority. There's some pretty interesting stuff there, since it was basically an entire galactic government made up solely of corporations and run like a business.
Alan you do know that the federal reserve doesn’t print currency, the Treasury department does. They do handle our monetary policy mostly including interest rates for our banking system. That why Secret Service was originally a treasury department agency as they police counterfeit currency. Just an FYI.
@@p_serdiuk No, they hold them as an asset and influence markets, but they don’t make new money or control our currency. That’s the State’s job (geopolitical term not the common form used) which was assigned in the US government to the Treasury Department and the Mint specifically for coinage (for sure and I can’t remember the exact name for the agency that makes the bills) as authorized by congress. There’s a difference between what a national bank (Reserve Banks for the US) does/purpose and actually making, controlling currency. State/Central banks help stabilize markets (stock markets, bonds, banking/financial markets) and set base loan rates. The physical/actual currency is made/controlled/protected by the State (government particularly) vigorously so the economy and trade can happen. They’re both important to the economy but one at much more fundamental level for a lot longer than the other (currency production and central/state banks). It’s very weird and incredibly stupid for the republic to let a private and non state actor run both these functions instead of the central government. That’s just asking for complete loss of legitimacy and collapse of your economy and state.
@@mugi-wharingan8150 No, they may be kept there until they are disbursed out for circulation, but they do not make, control, or guarantee the value of said bills. They are made by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing of the Department of the Treasury with the change made by the US Mint. The Treasury Department is the organ of the government which is charged with the creation and protection of the US currency and not the Federal Reserve. The Reserve is in charge of protecting and stabilizing our financial markets. They decide most of our monetary policies which evolve our economy, but NOT the US Dollar as a currency itself. It’s like the difference between Hasbro and Target/retail stores. Hasbro makes the toys and retail sell them based on the market demands.
You know, Alan, what I find weird is when a huge company does something so stupid they kill its own market. Like what Unity did. (I don't know if you followed this story.)
Some companies think that they're too big to fail and can get away with some truly dumb ideas. Often this is due to bad advice and leadership. Many of those examples (throw in Bud light) get corporate officers that want to change what worked and create their own legacy.
Likely the same as real life post war companies. If on the losing side they would sell off smaller parts of the company to get quick investment money. Then the company would continue on or possibly merge with other similar companies. Krupp, which made tanks, weapons, and raw steel for the German Navy in WWII sold off or closed its military plants but continued to make steel and vehicles until present day. Mitsubishi made military vehicles and airplanes including the A6M Zero and is still a very well known company today. Kawasaki Industries which made the Ki series of army aircraft used the exact same facilities to create parts for their Ninja series of motorcycles (I used to drool over these as a kid).
@@randallsanchez3161 probably correct, I was more asking about what happened after the empire which had nationalized these industries failed. Like did the new republic restore the Nemoidians to the Trade Federation? Or did they cut up these companies and enforce anti-trust stuff?
@@fratguide9835 I would bet they cut them up and sold them off to fund their budgets. Just like how they were stripping Star destroyers for parts to get funding. It's clear the new republic was on a decentralization, deregulation and low tax path as a reaction to the Empire's control everything path. Taxation would probably be very unpopular after the Empire fell so the new republic had to get their funding elsewhere, so selling off every asset they could would make sense.
Wait a minute here... An astromech droid: Something half the size of your average sentient, that can perform the calculations necessary for hyperspace jumps, do repairs on the ship while in transit, plus a whole host of other functions (many of which must have nothing at all to do with the operation of a starship, otherwise what use would moisture farmers on Tattooine have for one?) in addition to motivators, ocular/auditory sensors, and other things necessary for the droid to move through and interact with the world around it, but a navigation and repair module small enough can't just be installed in the ship itself instead of needing the droid? No, any navicomputer small enough to fit in an astromech droid can fit into a ship too. The makers of the C, R, and BB series either are a subsidiary of, or are in some way partnered with the corporations that run the shipyards. Or maybe they've got some dirt on the CEOs of these companies or something. The whole, "We can't build half an astromech droid inside our ships as part of the construction," thing is a scam to sell astromech droids. What, is someone going to tell me that the galaxy at large, which, more or less, enslaves the entire droid population, suddenly thinks it's immoral or unethical to put a droid in a ship where it can't move autonomously or something? They're bought and sold like any other appliance, and are otherwise treated no differently than we might treat our cars. We'll take care of and maintain it, because it's a hefty investment, but we're not concerned with its rights. I mean, effectively, what would be the difference between welding an astromech droid into its slot in the ship, and just removing the shell and the parts that let it move around from the droid and installing the necessary parts directly as part of the craft? Even at a glance, the idea that "certain ships _must_ have an astromech droid," makes no sense.
The canadian AVRO corporation was a vertical stacking. If they needed something for an aircraft... a new alloy? they bought a foundry and made it themselves. Engines? made it themselves... everything even the computers were supposed to be made in house.
Politics…pol(i)y means multiple, ti(c)ks mean blood suckle parasites. Thus, politics are perfectly rational, & make sense. As they are merely doing what is in their nature.
A correction Allen about what you said about Tesla. They are not vertically integrated as you said. I work for an automotive parts manufacture, and one of our costumers is Tesla. They are structured in the same way all other car makes are even contracting out a part of their assembly process.
Alan, what do you think will happened if these megacorporations go to wars against each other like how the North West Company went to war against the Hudson Bay's Company in a war called the Pemmican War? What will the Republic do? Will they do nothing and let them solve this problem on their own due to the factionalism and corruption within the Republic Senate or will they allowed the Jedi to intervene?
5:08 Hold up. Astromechs may be the navi computer for some fighters, but not all. The A-wing is incredibly small, and has a dedicated navi without an astromech, and yes I know it only has preprogrammed sets of jumps as per lore but that's not really ever explicitly made a point. And then there's Din's N-1 when he didn't have a droid socket, he seemed to be doing just fine.
The Techno Union makes sense. I myself am in aviation and the company I currently work for has the capacity to overhaul entire aircraft. From shops that specialize in airframe repair and painting, avionics repair, and engine repair all the way down to things like component repair and fabrication shops. I can say from my own experience that there is a certain level of ease when the ones sending you the work are all subcontracted within the same company and all operate under roughly the same parameters as you do
The massive monopoly in fictional franchises such as Star War's Trade Federation, Techno Union, Corporate Sector Authority and Alien's Weyland-Yutani Corp always seem over exaggerated where they could extend forcibly extend your contracts and brand you a traitor for attempting to unionize but then you realize Disney had its own government in Florida
Or that Google is currently responsible for 97 percent of all internet searches which doesn’t seem weird until you understand that this means they can dictate what the majority of people know. Hiding some information while placing forth different information. They have the ability to openly lie about current events and the vast majority of people would take them at their word. That is to say nothing about the fact that they all but run the city of SanFrancisco. I’m not even gonna mention BlackRock
One thing I've never understood is how can the trade federation control all galactic trade if there are so many smugglers? Plus getting a ship is something any middle class person can do it seems, so the barrier to entry is much lower than say, starting your own oil or car company. I have no idea how it would actually exist. Also in the master and apprentice novel obi wan and qui gon have to face a massive shipping company that isn't the trade federation, and that book seems to dispute what exactly the trade federation is. But og question: how did the trade federation monopolize trade if there was so much natural competition such as smugglers and independent contractors?
Star Wars Corporations are privatized sector sized governments. Usually it’s loose unitary governments with executives and their proxies in all the seats. But here the corporations have a tiny civilian government body that just furthers their utilitarianism as the entire state is dedicated to one industrial purpose or another.
7:25 Fun fact: "technical" was a term coined during the Chad-Libyan war, nicknamed the "Toyota War", because the Toyota Hilux was part of the "technical support" (as opposed to "military support") the US provided Chad. Follow up fun fact: light pickup trucks, or light utility vehicles are no longer produced because the emissions standards (set by the Federal DOT) for that class of vehicle is nearly impossible to meet, so all manufactures switched to sport utility vehicles (which have much more lax emissions standards)
so due to the fact that the Megacorps in Star Wars are so fucking massive, a corporation that only really has operations on a single planet would be a Mom and Pop small business by comparison
The Banking Clan proved to be the most resilient of the Seperatist supporters, while remnants of the Techno Union would survive the ar and the Empire it was never the same and the Trade Federation fell apart, the Banking Clan meanwhile survived the Galactic Republic and went on to continue as they had for thousands of years.
Tesla certainly gives a shit about Osha compliance and worker safety so that checks out for most Star Wars conglomerates. Just needs the multiple planets scale and corpo army now.
Three of the four were realistically and practically speaking governments in their own right. They did have representation in the Galactic Republic after all. Which does imply that the Republic recognized them governmental organizations. As for the first, if you really think they don't have lobbiests close to the Republic Senate building then you're incredibly naive. Reminder the Galactic Republic by the time of the Clone Wars was known for being incredibly currupt. It wouldn't surprise me if the Republic senators of Star Wars assisted in regulatory capture just as much as happens in real life. If not, I'd argue, far more then real life.
Just a point to be made about Ground News, what they consider left leaning isn't super accurate, but it's still a much better source for news than just binging straight from CNN or Fox
I could never figure out what Han Solo is talking about when he says The Falcon can outrun "the big correllian ships" when bragging about running Imperial blockades. What Imperial ships was he talking about because it seems like most Correllian ships are civilian cargo vessels and most Imperial ships are made by others like Sienar and Kuwat Driveyards
Kuat subcontracted places to build or assemble ships. CEC was subcontracted to build ISDs using their engines while having parts shipped to them for assembly. In the movie Solo you see some ISD's being assembled there.
I'd be interested in your take on a society that doesn't use money - though would still have some form of capitol - but deals with other societies that are still enslaved to it. They would stockpile the desired currency of other societies to use whenever they needed anything, since they have no use for money themselves. Their particular society grew out of the need for it. To provide a common ground for smooth interactions between allied planets, they would create a universal credit system all allied planets would agree on that could be used on any world to trade for goods or services. Within their own people and their own society, they wouldn't use it at all. Credits would have no value. But if outside societies wanted to do business with them, they would deal in credits. Thee would be no inflation. The value of a credit wouldn't change. Some societies would still accept it, but prefer their own hard currency if the person or entity they're dealing with had access to it. There would be exchange depots. A credit would be worth, say for simplicity, 2 gold in one society's money, and 4 gold in another. This would get confusion, so allied worlds would deal with each other using the credit, and their own money between themselves. Non allied worlds wouldn't accept it at all. Do you think a system like this could work on a galactic scale? I am really interested in your view on this, especially to pick your brain on any speculations as to how this could work in a sci-fi setting.
People accuse the United Federation of Planets of being communist propaganda, but if you look, it's actually the Star Wars prequels showing us how bad the Republic got thanks to the Megacorps!
You might enjoy discussing this with, now hear me out here, Preston Jacobs. Though some of his other fandom theories are controversial (intriguing enough to upset people), he has been a government/civil service economist & auditor throughout his “real life” career. I’d be fascinated by the conversation the two of y’all’s brains would conduct. Just a thought. Thank you for your quality video essays. You know you’re exploring fiction, but you bring up important ideas & realities in a time where direct discussion is fraught.
I agree Tesla is overvalued, they're no where near as large as Ford and their market cap exceeds Ford. It's an open secret the they're over values and the market will correct that.
