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On Wed, 18 Jul 2001, Tiberius Gracchus wrote:
> Why not just start out with the assumption that the rich/professional
> assocation/corps, et al will attempt to have their way through
> whatever means, and go from there.
> This is the NATURE of the social animal: powerful individuals, and
> groups of individuals will attempt to better their own lot though
> whatever means. So acknowledge it and deal with it.
Agreed. However, the reason large organizations form is just to
minimize frictional costs. It's easier to hire somebody to work for
you permanently than to take bids from contractors every time you need
a meeting scheduled, report faxed out, or a computer moved. It's
easier to own a building than to rent space as needed on an hourly
basis.
At least, that's how it used to be. With current or soon available
technologies for automation, communication, and transaction there will
be little more than inertia stopping people from forming temporary,
nimble micro-corporations for the purpose of making a profit from one
specific good or service and dissolving as soon as better
opportunities arise. An internal free market... or an erasure of the
boundaries between a corporation's exterior and interior.
Every chance logistical considerations afford them, people *do* opt
for the hired-gun business model. Obviously Chrysler and Oracle can't
just spin themselves off into clouds of micro-corporations, so they
are attempting to survive in the only way they know-- becoming bigger.
There are limits to growth, and eventually they will be out-competed
by smaller, freer, more efficient entities.
What does this all have to do with abuse of power by
"rich/professional associations/corps"? The more agents are playing a
game, the harder collusion becomes. I don't think unfettered
lassiez-faire would have worked[1] before the internet era, but it may
work now; it's well worth finding out.
[1] I define 'working' as maximizing aggregate human efforts to
survive and follow a trajectory that will eventually allow us to
escape the confines of this planet as well as our own biological
limitations.
- --
Linda Thompson bomb Davidian
Why are the above words in my signature? Check out:
http://www.echelon.wiretapped.net
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