Fascism Disguised As Utopia: A Response to Elle Griffin

The following is a response to Elle Griffin’s “Companies are the New City-States.” I believe Elle is one of the best online community builders on Substack. Yet, when someone argues that companies can solve a lot of the world's problems instead of focusing on strengthening democratic institutions, it’s a soft pitch for fascism—one that sounds innovative, efficient, even utopian, but in reality, is just a high-tech return to serfdom.

Although Elle’s article is well-intended and loaded with ideas worth reading, the argument makes some big claims about corporations taking over where governments fail, but it’s built on a shaky foundation of false comparisons, oversimplifications, and outright distortions. Let’s break it down.

1. GDP vs. Market Capitalization: A Misleading Comparison

• GDP (Gross Domestic Product) measures a country’s total economic output in a year. Market capitalization is the total value of a company’s shares on the stock market. These are apples and oranges.
• Apple’s $2.1 trillion market cap does not mean it produces more economic value than most countries. If Apple were a country, a better measure would be revenue, which sits around $400 billion—closer to the size of Austria’s economy, not a top-10 global superpower.
• Saudi Aramco’s market cap being double Saudi Arabia’s GDP is another misleading stat. Aramco is state-owned, and its stock price is speculation-driven, not an actual measure of productivity.

2. Corporations Are Not Borderless Empires

• Multinational companies may operate globally, but they still depend on national laws, tax codes, and infrastructure.
• Employees can’t just move freely across borders because they work for a global company. In reality, many corporations lobby for stricter immigration laws to suppress wages.
• Companies also take full advantage of national subsidies, legal loopholes, and government bailouts when convenient. So much for being independent of the state.

3. The Fantasy That Corporations Pioneered Workers’ Rights

• The 40-hour workweek, weekends, and parental leave were not gifts from corporations. Workers fought for them, often against fierce corporate opposition.
• Henry Ford adopting the 40-hour workweek was an exception, not the rule. Most companies resisted these changes until they were legally mandated or forced by unions.
• The article cherry-picks companies like Spotify with generous policies while ignoring Amazon’s notorious warehouse conditions, gig economy exploitation, and union busting (but yes, I realize unions can be even more corrupt than the companies who don’t want them).

4. Governments Aren’t Failing—Corporations Are Dodging Responsibility

• Google training African workers, Vail Resorts building employee housing, Walgreens training pharmacy techs—these sound great, but they’re often Band-Aids for problems corporations helped create:
  • Wage suppression and real estate speculation drive housing shortages.
  • Companies cut worker training programs, then act like heroes when they step in to replace them.
  • Underfunded public education is often the result of corporate tax avoidance.
• The argument ignores that companies thrive because of government-funded roads, education, and healthcare. They aren’t replacing the system; they’re leaning on it.

5. Corporations Are Not Democracies

• The claim that companies are more “inclusive” than governments is laughable. Unlike democratic states, corporations are not elected, not accountable to citizens, and do not operate transparently.
• Employees don’t get to vote on corporate policies. A diverse workforce doesn’t mean a fair workplace.
• Mondragon (a worker cooperative) is cited as a model, but it’s the exception, not the norm. Most companies concentrate wealth at the top.

6. The Danger of Relying on Corporations Instead of Governments

• Governments, for all their flaws, are supposed to serve the public. Corporations exist to maximize profit.
• When left unchecked, corporations exploit workers, dodge taxes, destroy the environment, and lobby to weaken regulations. The idea that they will voluntarily act in the public’s best interest is historically false.
• The idea that we should trust corporations over elected governments ignores decades of corporate scandals, environmental disasters, and financial crises caused by profit-first decision-making.

7. Corporations Are Not More Efficient—They’re Just Less Regulated

• The argument that companies “rise and fall based on their decisions” ignores how often governments bail them out (e.g., the 2008 financial crisis).
• Government inefficiency exists, but corporate efficiency often comes from cost-cutting that harms workers and consumers.
• The notion that corporations are “less polarized” ignores the fact that they actively fund and influence politics to serve their interests.

8. The Corporate City-State Fantasy Ignores Inequality

• Google providing free meals, gyms, and childcare sounds utopian—but only for Google employees. What happens to the unemployed, the elderly, or those outside these elite corporate bubbles?
• A world where companies replace governments would look a lot more like feudalism than a tech-utopia. If your healthcare, housing, and basic needs depend on an employer, you’re not free—you’re a serf.

Final Thoughts: Why This Argument Is Dangerous

The piece tries to sell corporations as the future of governance, but history tells a different story. We don’t need corporations to replace governments—we need stronger governments to regulate corporations. The solution isn’t handing power to private entities but demanding accountability, labor protections, and corporate responsibility. We’ve seen what happens when corporations run unchecked, and it’s not a world anyone should want.

I’m also sure it’s not the world Elle wants, nor what she advocates for. However, our capitalist system causes this slippery slope. This article is by no means a way to undermine the research and thoughtful community Elle has created in the 

The Elysian. I highly recommend checking it out and joining the discussions.

Also, if you want to learn more about why our capitalist system pushes people who exhibit personality traits from the dark triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) to the top, make sure to subscribe to 

Brian Klaas’s The Garden of Forking Paths. If you’re interested in making our word more utopian—or at least less dystopian—you’ll find some of the best sociopolitcal analysis on Substack.

If you believe in research and writing that break down borders, foster cross-cultural understanding, and inspire people to live unbound, consider becoming a paid subscriber to Born Without Borders.
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References

1. Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Harvard University Press.
2. Klein, N. (2007). The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Picador. Naomi Klein
3. Graeber, D. (2018). Bullshit Jobs: A Theory. Simon & Schuster.
4. Chang, H.-J. (2008). Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism. Bloomsbury Press.
5. Stiglitz, J. (2019). People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent. W.W. Norton & Company.