We used to think of powerful megacorporations ruling cities as a dystopia. But if I take a look at what our actual governments and authorities are doing (PRISM, Stand your ground laws, voting rights act, recent news of censorship in Britain etc. pp.) it seems it couldn't be much worse "under Google's rule". sigh.<p>Of course, the blog post is a bit naive, but it probably was just meant as a discussion starter. I've been thinking about a very similar plan.<p>This is what I'd do if I were filthy rich and ruthless:
- Buy a large part of the city. I mean properties, buildings, infrastructure.
- Arrange special terms with city and state. Make Googletown into a separate entity, with its own city government etc.. If you wait for another major crash, the US might be so desperate that you can arrange for extraterritorial status.
- Maybe one could arrange that unused interesting property can be expropriated or forcefully sold.
- Make Googletown into a Special Economic Zone.
- You don't only get the property, but also everybody who lives on it. Not as your servants :-) but as citizens of Googletown.<p>Why?
The idea is that you'll have a lot of very cheap workers, who will be extremely loyal to you for saving their city, if you pull it off correctly. You can produce all kinds of (cheap) goods at competitive prices, and sell them on the north American market. And you can run experiments - sure, Google Cars, but I'm more interested in <i>social</i> experiments (see below).<p>Why would Detroit/Michigan/the US agree to my plan?
- It would provide immediate relief. As someone in this thread noticed, the debt is much less than the total value of the city. Paying the debt is peanuts in comparison.
- They'd get rid of many bad = cheap parts of the city.
- You'd take care of the people for them - providing healthcare, social security, police, etc..<p>How would I rule Googletown? I'd let it organize democratically, but I'd take care that I'd control the general direction of development. On one hand, I'd try to make it a liberal model town / experiment. Gay marrage, strict gun control, universal healthcare... a republican's nightmare :-).<p>On the other hand, I'm trying to run a very troubled town. People are poor, not well educated, there's a lot of crime. People are accustomed to doing stuff their way, and won't likely adapt well to a googletopian society. So it's not just carrot, but unfortunately also stick. (Wow, that sounded really Machiavellian. Honestly, I hope no one ever tries to pull this off.). One necessary thing would be to crack down on organized crime and gangs. Increase police presence, expell all gang members from the city bounds. Ban all weapons. Regard organized crime as treason against the people, and have draconian punishments for it. Robocops.<p>Again, I find it sad and scary that we've come to the point where I'm actually considering a benevolent corporate dictatorship to be a worthwhile alternative to our current system.