e live in a time when the middle class is rapidly disappearing, when the divide between wealthy and not-wealthy is as great as it’s ever been, and when the future appears poised to bring us a bleak landscape of uber-wealthy gated cities separated by sophisticated technology from warring, impoverished multitudes.

It’s right out of a Paolo Bacigalupi novel.

Is this the future that has to be?

What if those giant tech companies that have been so efficient at eliminating middle class employment were subject to rigorous anti-trust regulations designed to prevent too much of our country’s economic power from falling into too few hands? What if amazon, and facebook, and apple, and google, and microsoft, and uber were forced to split up, as AT & T was, back in 1982?

At minimum, many jobs would be created. Each “baby google” would need its own set of engineers, and accountants and other white collar middle class employees. There would be more corporate campuses, employing more groundskeepers and cafeteria staff and receptionists. It would be easier to start a business without fearing that your great idea would be absorbed into the facebook or amazon ecosphere, so innovation would be encouraged and promoted.

It also might be increasingly politically viable.

Let’s hope for a Gene Roddenberry future and not a Philip K Dick one.