Are Tech Giants Becoming Our New Overlords?

As tech corporations grow larger than nations, their influence over our habits, beliefs, and daily lives only intensifies. This piece examines how corporate power shapes our choices—and why supporting local businesses may be the last real safeguard of personal autonomy.

Richard Markosian

November 15, 2025

If giant corporations continue on the path of the dinosaurs; growing ever-larger; dominating more landscape and minds, and if they continue to grow exponentially, we could become a Borg-like species. (Reference Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season Four, for a full explanation of what that means.)

By then, they will have superseded our free will, squelched our personal control, and dictated our speech. We will have completely separated into our respective hive-minds.

Red, conservative minds will be controlled by X and Elon Musk. Blue liberal minds will be controlled by Google, Amazon and Zoran Mamdani.

We will eventually come to worship our corporate overlords with fealty and complete submission. The world will be controlled by the technocrats whom we will obey without question. We will stop speaking out, fearing alienation by the hive.

Why? Because this will be the only way our dopamine-programmed brains will be able to maintain our emotional peace. Screens will provide our mental stimulation and sugar syrup will be our food. We will waste away in our Lazy Boy recliners with robots wiping our asses because we will only be able to sit, poop, eat and repeat.

We could choose to turn off our devices, shop local, and defund the coming corporate-bureaucratic-technocratic hegemony. We become slaves to our devices if we get all of our information from them and the algorithms they use to program us. And make no mistake: we are being programmed, especially if an increasing number of your purchases are made via Amazon and Uber Eats, and your only source of news and communication is via TikTok influencers. What is the end game?

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology. I even love TikTok influencers, a few of whom I had the pleasure of meeting recently at the opening of Saffron Valley’s latest new creation, Central. But there is a problem when an ever-increasing amount of our GDP is dependent upon giant corporations. The corporate powers gain an ever-increasing amount of influence over us.

Two milestones were recently reached; Nvidia became the first $5 trillion dollar market cap company, and Apple reached a $4 trillion dollar level. Combine Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Tesla and Facebook to that mix, and these companies have more combined market capitalization than many countries. Amazon, Google and Facebook have more power than most countries.

Amazon, with its 1.5 million employees, is nearly the size of a small country by population. But that won’t last. Amazon plans to replace most of its workforce with robots in the next five years.

What bothers me is that not only do we bend the knee and kiss the ring of our corporate overlords, but so do our political leaders. Amazon has received nearly $12 billion in government subsidies since 2000, according to Good Job’s First Amazon Tracker. And Utah has given Amazon a good share of that, handing over large chunks of change to entice (i.e.: bribe) Amazon to build larger fulfillment centers, helping to expedite the demise of local retail.

But back to my original point: we can stop this nonsense if we would simply choose to buy more locally-made products from locally-owned shops. There are an abundance of amazing products; there are tons of great shops. This issue is a guide to help return power to you as a consumer.

Community Relations, Development Projects, Go Local

Richard Markosian

I am a story teller and journalist. I have a passion for farmers, local craftspeople, and folks who aspire to create, build and grow their business in the local marketplace. Why local? By supporting locally-owned businesses we create more opportunity for entrepreneurs, and we claim our sovereignty to shape our communities how we want to see them. I aspire to build Utah Stories Magazine into a household Utah name, and assist Utah businesses and makers with marketing. On the journalism side of things my passion is investigative journalism that offers true insight into issues. I believe strongly in the forth estate: strong, meaningful, insightful journalism is essential to a free market Democracy.

Go Local

Utah Craft Whiskey: How Barrels and Utah’s Climate Shape Flavor

Utah’s craft whiskey scene is shaped by more than grain, yeast, and time. The state’s dry climate plays an unusually powerful role in how spirits age, intensifying the relationship between whiskey and the barrels that hold it.

Low humidity accelerates evaporation during aging, often claiming 14–18 percent of a barrel’s contents as the “angel’s share.” Unlike more humid regions where alcohol evaporates faster, Utah barrels tend to lose more water, concentrating flavor and driving proof upward over time. That accelerated interaction pulls sugars, tannins, and spice from the wood more quickly, creating whiskeys that often taste older and more structured than their age statements suggest.

To understand how Utah distillers are deliberately harnessing climate, char, and finishing barrels to shape flavor, two producers at the forefront of that experimentation — Sugar House Distillery and Spirits of the Wasatch — shared how barrel choices influence everything from sweetness and spice to texture and proof.

*The remainder of this article is available to Utah Stories subscribers and includes in-depth reporting from Utah distillers on barrel selection, aging techniques, and experimental finishes.

To access this post, you must purchase Utah Stories (Digital + Print) or 3 month free trial (Digital).
Go Local

Sugar House Businesses Recover After Prolonged Road Construction

For nearly two years, construction along 2100 South reshaped daily life in Sugar House, testing the patience and resilience of local businesses. With roads and sidewalks finally reopened, owners are beginning to take stock of what was lost, what changed, and what recovery might actually look like.
Go Local

Why Price, Utah, Needed a Rock and Fossil Shop

After years in Salt Lake City and an interlude in Oregon, Kathie Chadbourne settled on Price as the location for her new rock shop. The town appealed to her because of its strong ties to geology and archeology, and its place within the Dinosaur Diamond. At first, she wondered whether a shop like hers might already exist there.
Community Relations

Ogden Valley City Incorporates as Voters Deliver a Surprising Mayoral Outcome

Ogden Valley City has officially incorporated at a pivotal moment for northern Utah, just as growth pressures tied to the 2034 Winter Olympics begin to accelerate. Voters also delivered an unexpected mayoral outcome, setting the tone for how the new city will approach land use, local control, and the work of building a government from the ground up.

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