UK "trade deal"

The UK just agreed to a "trade deal" in which computing megacorporations made a "commitment" to invest large sums in the UK, including the construction of hypothetical future small nuclear reactors a decade or two from now.

In effect, the deal gives the UK a promise to implement lots of malicious technology (bullshit generators and computer chips whose instruction sets are secret) along with the risks and wastes of a new type of nuclear reactor (instead of renewable generators).

It is possible that these "commitments" to impose problems will not be carried out.

When a big company makes a "commitment" for future investment, it can break that commitment later after receiving the benefit it already received "in exchange". Corporations have no consciences and are happy to swindle states and their workers if they can't be punished. This is why I proposed that the 50 states should form a union so as to replace their negotiations over tax breaks for "investors" with collective bargaining.

It is not clear to me what benefit the companies are getting in exchange for this "commitment". If it is nothing other than the profit they might later get from these investments, why call it a "deal"?

I suspect that the benefit they got is a change in policies, this year — that the UK government dropped some important objections to some of what the companies plan to do there. If so, they have already received their side of the deal, and if they later invest less than they "promised", it will be impossible to take back what they were given.

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