Vortex: A Warning about Monopolies in the Age of Modern Technology

     Vortex is the second novel in the Insignia trilogy by SJ Kincaid. Set in the future United States; the peoples and governments of the world are either directly under the control of or influenced by twelve corporate giants called the Coalition of Multinationals. These companies are exploitative and invasive companies that control almost all aspects of human life. There are companies that through manipulative technology and a few well-placed bribes own the rights to all the water and almost all the crops in the world they then charge fees to anyone who drinks water and grows crops. Manufacturing,  defense, communication, energy, and essentially all other products and services are also controlled by these twelve companies and their subsidiaries. There unchecked greed and corruption have eliminated the middle class and helped develop the creation of a police state to protect the wealthy.
    Humans have the ability to send drones throughout the solar system to harvest the resources of planets and asteroids. Arguments about rights to the resources of the solar system were used as an excuse by the Coalition of Multinationals to start a war between a Russo-Chinese alliance and an Indian, American, Oceanic alliance. Six companies aligned with each alliance but still operated in the countries that they were at war with. The war is fought exclusively in space by unmanned drones; these drones are controlled by humans on earth using a brain implant called a neural processor. The neural processors cannot be used on adults, so the militaries of the alliances recruit teenagers to be implanted with neural processors and pilot the drones. The Coalition benefit greatly from this war and have a hand in its creation and its prolongation. The conflicts of interests in this war are so great that the arms manufacturers for both sides of the war are secretly run by the same CEO. 
    The ethics of child soldiers (even in unmanned conflicts) aside, the problems concerning the most interesting part of the book is the rather direct lines that can be drawn between the current situation in the United States and the dystopian future of Vortex. The dominance of companies like Google and Amazon and their ability to crush their emerging competitors is mirrored by the stranglehold that companies in the book hold on their respective industries. The use of convict laborers by the manufacturing giants in Vortex is similar to the private prison industry and its treatment of the inmates as commodities. 

    The Coalition of Multinationals has a member company whose very purpose is as a lobbying tool, government officials own shares in this company and despite the company not producing anything of value it is kept afloat by the rivers of the public's money being pumped into it by the government officials who have an interest in its financial success. Conflicts of interest have become an increasing problem in our government especially in the use of public funds by President Trump and his administration at properties owned by the Trumps. 

    Vortex and the Insignia trilogy as a whole provide a stark look at the power of unchecked corporate greed and unaccountable politicians. It shows how conflicts of interest and unregulated lobbying in government allows corporate entities to steal power from those that the government is supposed to protect and use it to further their own agendas. This all in turn creates the need for an invasive and violent  police state to keep the dissatisfied population in check.