Virginia Inc

When I first started shooting this idea around, I was told it was way too far-fetched. Too many rational politicians would stand up and say, "Nay!" Well, it's looking a lot less far-fetched now.

What the hell am I talking about?

A Corporate State. We've seen smaller versions with Disney and its county-like control in Florida. But Disney is run by Mickey Mouse, and Goofy would never kick in your door with his military-issue boots, right?

So what's going on here in Virginia? It starts small, and with good intentions. Multiple public-private partnerships have been around for years, and with good results. The state sees benefits while a private business makes money. Win-win. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, we get very comfortable with have private companies handling the business of government. After all, they have government oversight, right?

Enter VITA, with probably good intentions. But with leadership that ranges from corrupt to outright incompetent. They figure the only state employees who have a brain are the ones that they golf with, so the rest should be replaced. In fact, anything associated with the state should be replaced. Other than them, of course. They're different.

Someone says, "Hey, let's create a really BIG public-private partnership!" Everyone nods, because bigger is always better. So they put out the word and giant multinational companies respond. The bidding process is done in secret, because the little people don't understand the finer points of running a state. Contracts are written by the corporations, and the state blindly approves them (so many words...) in closed sessions. Does it matter that these contracts sign away the baby and the bathwater? Certainly not. Big Business is our Friend.

So what happens when a corporation is now effectively in charge of the IT backbone (and nervous system, and endocrine system, and circulatory system)? Well, did you VITA folks realize that - under our vague contract - we can also take over all these other little services for you? At only a small surcharge? The state portal, motor vehicle licenses, human resources, blah, blah blah. What a great deal! We'll just "retrain" the folks currently handling those tasks. If we're lucky, we can get them to quit before we fire them.

Suddenly word comes down that Corporate Daddy needs to start charging for these services. A lot. But less than it would cost to rebuild the entire system from scratch, hire new employees, train them, and possibly suffer vast data loss as those currently in charge "accidently" destroy everything. What are you going to do? The only people left it IT are managers with no technical skills, close to retirement. I'll tell you what you do, you PAY the bastards!

Bit by bit it gets transferred from full government control to minimal government oversight to - finally - taxpayer dollars only. Every state employee is paid in some way by the Corporate Machine.

Tyrell Corporation. More Human than Human.

Virginia Incorporated, a wholely owned subsidiary of Northrob-Gunmakers, Inc.

Should be fun, eh?