Kevin Williamson has a great column today about science
fiction dystopias that are run by corporations.
As he observes, this is a very unlikely outcome.
Fact is that corporations have only been oppressive when they
get government help, particularly state guaranteed monopoly power. The
classic examples of this are the British East India Company and the Dutch East
India Company, both of whom became de facto colonial governments with their
home county governments’ assistance.
Thankfully, there are a lot of competing science fiction
visions that take a much more libertarian bent. For example,
"Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson and the LaNague/KYFHO series of
stories by F. Paul Wilson are both anti government and fun to boot. Try
them as an antidote to corporate villains.