big pharma, big tech, big oil - which has the most power?

I went with “big tech” but totally understand why someone would go with another option.

i was hoping someone less lazy than i could do like a market cap summary or something lol

Big oil for the planetary destruction

casually watching the build back better fiasco my impression is

big pharma > big oil > big tech

tech blasted well past oil over the past 10-15 years

Big oil has the entire globe by the short hairs to a degree that big tech or big pharma can only dream of.

Big oil for the planetary destruction

big oil >>>>>>>

or maybe that should be <<<<<<

big oil orders of magnitude worse than the other 2

i guess this is obviously big oil.

maybe a more interesting question would have been big pharma vs. big tech? like, both are viewed as generally providing good things, but there's a lot of evidence to the contrary.

i really started this thread because i feel like pharma isn't discussed as much relative to the power it has. but maybe not. i really really started this thread because i went to dinner with a friend who works for a pharma company last night, it was very expensive and he paid for all of it on the company card.

Even right-wingers blast "Big Pharma" and "Big Tech" these days.

Oil still has the power to get governments overthrown.

Pharmaceuticals' greatest power is in the US and it's mostly limited to the rent-seeking/immiseration combo. Pfizer isn't going to talk anyone into invading over pills probably.

Tech is soft power - penetrating every layer of humanity but doing its greatest damage by its inaction. Tech has potential going forward as the replacement for the state.

I'll go with oil for now.

big pharma's power is relatively narrow

big oil is powerful and destructive, but it can't gain much more power than it already has

I am old enough to remember life outside the digital aquarium and voted for big tech in a heartbeat

If you look at the market cap of the industry, tech and oil are way way bigger than pharma. "Tech" can be defined different ways though, whereas oil is oil.

big oil is powerful and destructive, but it can't gain much more power than it already has

doesn't have to get anymore powerful than it already is; it could even decrease substantially in power and still destroy the world

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Without oil, there is no tech and no pharma. Plastics, glass, most manufacturing processes, most organic chemical components - all dependent on hydrocarbons, if not directly as feedstocks then the heat and electricity produced by them.

i think when i answered this i had misread the question as 'which is the worst'. i still think my answer is oil, but it's closer

i think when i answered this i had misread the question as 'which is the worst'.

feels like a lot of ppl in the thread did, or assume it's the same thing?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/banana-republic/

Biased as I worked (and hated every minute) with big pharma but I think they’re lowkey owning us all more than oil and tech ever will.

People talk about the Military Industrial Complex but Johnson & Johnson alone make more in profits than not only any defence contractor, but all defence contractors combined

Revenue is a bit more even but J*J, Proctor & Gamble, Pfizer at the least are all bigger than the likes of Lockheed or Boeing in overall revenue

See! My intuition wasn’t off but that is some insane data.

medicine is definitely worse than violence

oh wait… power… it’s big tech

Revenue is a bit more even but J*J, Proctor & Gamble, Pfizer at the least are all bigger than the likes of Lockheed or Boeing in overall revenue

Looked into it a bit more and these weren't the best companies to use as they're all relative minnows. United Health Group is larger than all US defense companies combined. CVS Health Group are also larger than all US defense contractors combined. As are both Berkshire Hathaway and Uniper. The same is also true of McKesson

I’m getting a new neighbor who happens to be defending big oil in this case.

https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/09/16/people-of-the-state-of-california-v-big-oil/