On the sacrifices of our future for some temporary stability

No news this time, just food for thought.

Today a friend of mine mentioned a new business he'd like to start, with some online work involved. I've been talking with some relatives over the past few months about their small business, possibly to the point of getting involved in making it work. Another friend of mine has been working on his new business for a while, and he got his first online customer today.

In my lifetime, the world has shrunk at a dizzying rate and the power of the individual seems to have grown in proportion. As a technology professional and hobbyist, I've fully enjoyed our increased capacity to calculate, inform, and connect. I've also been impressed by the political thoughts and personal character of the American founding fathers. Under these influences, I've been excited as I think about what we humans can do for each other nowadays, and I've anticipated a future where the power of compulsion diminishes (particularly government power) as individuals become more informed and able to produce in a variety of ways for a variety of markets. This would be a world where there still may be some large corporations and organizations who are able to attract the attention of masses of individuals, but there are more of the small-time, local cooperatives because they have many of the same tools at their disposal. The farmer in Nigeria would have as much of a chance to be successful as a CEO in New York. (Of course, we're not close yet! But with all the interest in international development and distributed systems, I don't see any barrier to creating these infrastructures over time.)

But I will not see this kind of world in my lifetime. Whether or not it is the will of the people, those in power will keep attempting things like the Big Bailout Bill whenever they feel there is an crisis to warrant it. They may or may not be justified by the wishes of the people; either way, I feel the leadership we most need is the persuasion and effective government that allows people to build self-sufficiency and make effective contracts with one another. This is the whole idea of limited government. Instead, what we have now is a society where one effective business strategy is to grow to be a massive organization, one so big that it'll make politicians nervous if your business fails. Sure, you might have to put up with more oversight, but you can likely make enough political friends to make sure your future is secure. Today's world is all about what you can get from your politicians, with those furthest away from you having the most power over your life and opportunities.

This situation makes it more difficult to get to my future, where the large, unsustainable organizations are replaced by smaller, more agile, more viable ones. If we want the best for ourselves, we have to accept change. We have to be willing to allow people to take risks and let them fail, even if it causes difficulty; if we really want to avoid catastrophe, we need to have the freedom to evolve our businesses and accept the pain of failure, even big failure, as well as the rewards of success.

I will do all I can to help my friends succeed, despite the emergence of this brave new world.