Neoliberalism’s New Frontier: How Corporate Sovereignty Undermines Public Wealth via Tax Exploitation
Original framing: “Pay to play in the age of corporate migration” — Financial Times
Indigenous economies operate on principles of reciprocity and long-term stewardship, diametrically opposed to corporate migration’s extractive logic. For example, the *Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s* economic model prioritizes communal well-being over short-term gains, a framework that could inform alternative fiscal policies. The omission of these perspectives reinforces the colonial myth that Western capitalism is the only viable economic system. Practices like *Maori* *whakapapa*-based resource management offer a blueprint for non-exploitative governance, but they are absent from mainstream economic discourse.
The Financial Times’ framing of corporate migration as a neutral economic phenomenon obscures its role as a weapon in neoliberalism’s arsenal, designed to hollow out state capacity and concentrate wealth in corporate hands.
Historical precedents—from colonial resource grabs to the Bretton Woods system—reveal this as a cyclical pattern, not an anomaly, while Indigenous and cross-cultural models offer viable alternatives rooted in reciprocity and long-term stewardship. Marginalized voices, such as tax justice activists, expose how these policies perpetuate inequality, yet their perspectives are systematically excluded from mainstream narratives. The trickster lens cuts through the illusion of choice, revealing how states are coerced into competing under rigged rules. Solutions must combine global tax accords with Indigenous fiscal sovereignty models, public wealth funds, and corporate accountability mechanisms to break the cycle of extraction and restore democratic control over economic policy.