“These and other examples show that in addition to trying to shape the world in the interests of American elites, the Pentagon’s ulterior motive is to fund hi-tech industry to stimulate new economies. That same hi-technology, which exists in a so-called system of “free enterprise,” not only creates monopolies, it does so with taxpayer money. Spied on and manipulated by the technologies they fund, the public, as consumers, then pay for services provided by those tech giants. Talk about a vicious cycle…”
by TJ Coles CounterPunch edited by O Society May 22, 2019
The US Department of Defense’s bloated budget, along with CIA venture capital, helped to create tech giants, including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and PayPal. The government then contracts those companies to help its military and intelligence operations. In doing so, it makes the tech giants even bigger.
In recent years, the traditional banking, energy and industrial Fortune 500companies have been losing ground to tech giants like Apple and Facebook. But the technology on which they rely emerged from the taxpayer-fundedresearch and development of bygone decades. The internet started as ARPANET, an invention of Honeywell-Raytheon working under a Department of Defense (DoD) contract. The same satellites that enable modern internet communications also enable US jets to bomb their enemies, as does the GPSthat enables online retailers to deliver products with pinpoint accuracy. Apple’s touchscreen technology originated as…
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I previously posted about the example of Amazon as so connected to government as likely to be an extension of it. Jeff Bezos was close to his grandfather who was a major figure on the government side of the military-industrial complex. It is highly unlikely that Bezos accidentally created a corporate system that has been so integral to that same corporatocratic nexus of wealth and power.
https://benjamindavidsteele.wordpress.com/2018/10/28/plutocratic-mirage-of-self-made-billionaires/