Socapalist Union

The Socapalist Union is a nation state located high above Earth’s orbit which was settled primarily by the members of the Socapalist movement.

## History

(If you’re wondering about what happened to the ban on territory in outer space which exists IRL, yeah no one followed that after the dissolution of the United Nations lol.) After the dawn of easily available space settlement, all sorts of people, looking for space on the great frontiers piled together to create their own societies. An explosion of new leaders, new thinkers, and new systems were tried out in the void, away from the clearly established power dynamics of the world below.

Socapalism was born out of a disillusionment with the broader socialist left following the critical failure of socialist movements to gain widespread appeal for the 2nd time, and it’s failure to rival or surpass the superpowers of capitalist systems, or even provide a decent standard of living for its citizens. Socapalists are those who wanted to use capitalist means for socialist ends. They noticed that in a free market without much restriction from the government, smaller companies in industries with low barriers to entry usually had more flexibility and could strike and adapt much faster than more established larger companies. As well, the rise of the hypercorporation (Corporations were opened for very specific niches, completed their task as fast as possible, then shut down) greatly challenged the ability for megacorporations to stay competitive.

From this, Socapalist thinkers concluded the way to tear down existing hierarchies, and create a more equitable world was not by going against the market, but by going through it. Socapalism came up with many innovative ideas such as a progressive corporate tax, a land tax, encouraging the creation of small businesses and hypercorporations to continuously chip away at larger corporations, and fostering a environment too competitive to allow for the rise of large corporations.

On top of that, they adopted other progressive policies such as a land tax, generous worker’s protections, but also extreme ease of starting a business to attract the entrepreneurs that would keep the Socapalist system going. The economy of the Socapalist Union is characterized by an extremely fast turnover in the nation’s largest economies, and for income mobility. A person who was the richest country in the nation would likely not be there by next year, as their hypercorporations closed down, and new hypercorporations would be made to surpass it, contracts and new competitors coming and going like the wind. The market in the Socapalist Union resembles accelerated change.

Income inequality was lowered much thanks to the progressive economic ideas, and equality has been somewhat achieved not through government, but through decentralization. There is so much competition that few companies can establish a secure foothold before a dozen competitors begin nibbling away at their edges like a frenzy of piranhas. That said, the largest criticism of this market is the extreme emphasis on small businesses, and the difficulty of creating a large corporation creates a lot of waste, as economies of scale are unable to be formed. Though that said, there are certainly upsides which should not be neglected. Socapalist economics, and their success in low earth orbit has sparked similar movements around the world.