> This is typically called a “Government”. In the US we used to have this at the town, state and federal level. And these “governments” wouldn’t just work with one company, but a many companies.

Sounds like a good idea!

> The way they worked is people would vote for representatives that help make decisions that were in the interests of people, and this would reign in the power of extremely large and powerful companies.

Ah yes, people were so sophisticated before the internet. I find it hard to remember how things even worked.

The representation was a fantastic solution for the communication over distance problem.

Today it would be rather silly to propose representation. I don't need anyone to represent me. Strength in numbers is enough.

While big [worker] unions are powerful they do tend to get distracted by large issues. Smaller tailored unions spend all of their time on their much smaller scope.

It is also very helpful for Google to see which issues users would like to see addressed. They probably have them documented internally already but cant find a way to prioritize them. There could be constructive dialog rather than a moaning contest that addresses only the company most moaned about.

As with employee unions, being a member makes the employer act entirely different.