In the words of the immortal George Clinton, “He who has the gold makes the rules.” You could make a pretty good argument that that’s the case now, but Plutocracy: Chronicles of a Global Monopoly, a new graphic novel by Spanish creator Abraham Martínez, takes it to the extreme. In Martínez’s near-future sci-fi yarn, all the corporations have become one and only shareholders can vote—and the more shares you have, the more your vote counts. Here’s how publisher NBM describes it:
Microsoft. Amazon. Facebook. Apple.Separately these corporations are worth hundreds of billions of dollars and their reach is unprecedented. Imagine the power if they were to merge and become the de facto ruling power. The richer you are the more shares you own and the largest owners, rule.How did this come to pass? It’s 2051 and one anonymous citizen begins investigating how this came to be. Intriguingly, he is not discouraged from doing so, in fact he even ends up financed by the corporation….At a time when it seems more and more natural that wealthy people such as Silvio Berlusconi or Donald Trump come to political power, this graphic novel envisions the possibility that, in the near future, the world will be governed by a plutocratic system in which it will go without saying that politics and wealth go hand in hand.
NBM will publish this fascinating bit of speculative fiction on October 27, just in time to get you in the mood for Election Day.
