So last weekend I was trying to get a Covid vaccine and came up against a frightening development in our society. And no, it wasn’t the fact that after six years and change we are still dealing with this damn virus.
I have major travel plans in September, so I wanted to get the vaccine a couple of weeks before my trip so I’ll be at peak protection when I get on a plane. Travel plans have generally dictated how I schedule my shots, which I get every six months.
I checked the CVS website, but couldn’t find any appointments at the one nearest me. Then I checked Walgreens, and they had appointments through August 23, but not afterwards. The new vaccine drops in mid-September – while I’m traveling – so I assumed they weren’t going to order any more vaccines if they ran out.
So I made an appointment for August 22 at the closest Walgreens. Walgreens sent me 9 messages via text and email confirming my appointment and reminding me of it.
I showed up right on time, only to be informed that they didn’t have it. “But I have an appointment,” I said. The pharmacist looked at me like I was crazy for assuming I could get a vaccine when I had an appointment. He didn’t apologize, but told me I could complain to “corporate.”
I got a cancellation text 10 minutes after I left the drugstore.
I was furious, of course. Fortunately, a friend mentioned that a major grocery chain in her area still had vaccines, so I decided to check with Safeway.
Their website said they did and that they took walk-ins, so I walked over on Sunday afternoon to get one, only to discover that they don’t do vaccines in the last hour the pharmacy is open (no, the website doesn’t mention that).
But the clerk confirmed they still had the vaccine in stock. I asked if they would still have it Tuesday – I had plans on Monday – and she said maybe, but “corporate” might decide to have all the vaccines shipped back at any moment.
And that’s when it hit me, with that second reference to “corporate,” that big companies control a large part of our lives these days without us having any right to push back at how they do it.
I took the Safeway clerk at her word, changed my Monday plans, showed up when they started doing vaccines at 10 am, and got my shot from a very nice pharmacist. But “corporate” was still pinging in my head.
I’ve read all of the Murderbot books by Martha Wells, so I’ve got a science fictional take on just how awful corporate control of society can look. The corporates – and that’s the word used, not corporation, but corporates – have employees who essentially indentured to them. They sign people up for labor contracts that leave them with little in the way of rights. And they charge for everything, all the time, and even try to cheat when they’ve made a contract.
In this future world, sometimes the corporates go to war with each other, or turn on their own with violence. There’s no government to rein them in.
That’s the kind of world the broligarch crowd want to create. As I said last week, I’m currently reading Gil Duran’s The Nerd Reich, where he discusses the fact that many of the billionaire tech guys are opposed to democracy and want to create “network states” that are run by corporations.
The only rights people have in such places are those they can afford to buy.
Andrea Hairston included corporate-controlled cities in Archangels of Funk along with other powerful entities that the good guys had to work around. Unlike Murderbot, this is a near-future story, and it provides a reasonable scenario for the libertarian dreams Duran chronicles.
Now we’re not there yet – though there are a couple of network state settlements and also some of the more old-fashioned variety of company towns. But we’re getting a taste of what that reality could be like in areas where corporate-controlled businesses dominate the market.
Both CVS and Walgreens put their chain drugstores in places where they could drive local independent pharmacies out of business. These days there are very few independent pharmacies and most of the ones left do specialized services. Then the chains started locking up a lot of the products – even though their stores are notoriously understaffed – and closing stores, even ones that had heavy traffic.
Walgreens is owned by a private equity firm now. CVS is tied to Aetna health insurance in some manner – I haven’t researched all their legal ties, but I get better rates there due to my insurance.
And for that matter, Safeway is also owned by private equity.
Now pharmacies are an important resource that everyone needs. Many of us take prescription drugs, and almost everyone uses some over-the-counter drug products such as asprin or eye drops.
A lot of doctors’ offices don’t give vaccines these days; they refer you to the pharmacies. And that means whether you can get the vaccines – or, in some cases, your prescription in a timely manner – is under the control of “corporate,” not medical professionals.
These drug stores have trained, registered pharmacists, but “corporate” makes the decisions.
Private equity firms and other powerful corporations are taking over a lot of businesses in the U.S. I’ve noticed it with veterinarians – all the ones around here are owned by Mars Corp., the privately-held candy company. Every vet visit now includes an “estimate” before they do their treatment, and prices have gone through the roof.
Finding a reasonable alternative is getting harder.
And of course, an awful lot of jobs these days are with big companies who, especially in the absence of strong unions, put a lot of restrictions that have nothing to do with the job on their employees.
Now I try to avoid the corporates when I can. I have a great mechanic who is just a block away – very useful, since my car is old, though not yet at the point where it would cost less to get a new one. I shop at the farmers market and an independent grocery. I go to local restaurants and indie bookstores and small hardware chains.
“Corporate” doesn’t make decisions in those places. I feel like I can trust their products and their advice.
But as my vaccine experience shows, there are things I need that I can’t get from alternative places. And I haven’t even mentioned tech products, where the corporate control is completely baked in.
We’re having to deal with “corporate” more and more, and the broligarchs want to use it to run everything.
It’s past time to bring back democracy.