Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity
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Magic Eraser Duo, 107
Maker’s Row, 30
malware, 37
marketing. See also advertising
big data and, 42
branding and, 20, 35–37
“likes” economy and, 35–37
mass, 19–20
social graphs generated by, 40
market makers, 178–79
market money, 127–28, 130
Marx, Karl, 83, 138
mass media, 20–21
maturity, 98
Mecklenburg, George, 159
medical debt, 153
Meetup, 196–97
microfinancing platforms, 202–4
Microsoft, 83
Microventures, 202–3
Mill, John Stuart, 135
mining, of bitcoins, 145, 147
MIT Technology Review, 53
Mondragon Corporation, 220, 222
money
basket of commodities approach to backing of, 139
blockchains and, 144–51, 222
central currency system and (See central currency system)
cooperative currencies, 160–65
debt and, 152–54
digital transaction networks and, 140–51
extractive purpose of, 128–31
free money theory, currencies based on, 156–59
gold standard and, 139
grain receipts, 128
history of, 126–31
local currencies, 154–65
manipulating human financial behavior to serve, 151–52
market, 127–28, 130
operating system nature of centrally-issued, 125–26
outlawing of local currencies and replacement with coin of the realm, 128–29
precious metals and, 128
reprogramming of, 138–51
traditional bank’s role in serving communities, 165–67
traditional purpose of, 126
as unbound, 212–13
velocity of, 140–41
monopolies
chartered, 18, 56, 70, 101, 125, 131
platform, 82–93, 101
power-law dynamics and, 27–28
Monsanto, 218
Morgan Stanley, 195
Mozilla Corporation, 122–23
Mozilla Foundation, 122–23
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, 107
music industry, 100
positive reinforcement feedback loop and, 28
power-law dynamics and, 26–27
360 deals and, 34
Musk, Elon, 121
Myspace, 31
Nakamoto, Satoshi, 143, 145
National Commission on Technology, Automation and Economic Progress, 52–53
negative income tax, 64
Neilsen Soundscan, 26–27
Nelson, Jonathan, 26
Nelson, Matthew, 25, 26
Netflix, 29, 48
New Deal, 99
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), 182
New York Times, 37–38, 87, 177
99designs, 200
Nixon, Richard, 63
not-for-profits (NFPs), 121–23
obsolescence
Amazon business model and, 89–90
corporations and, 70–71, 73
employment opportunities, technology as replacing and obsolescing, 51–54
Occupy Wall Street movement, 100, 152, 153
Oculus Rift, 201
offshoring, 78–79
Olen, Helaine, 170
OMGPop, 192, 193
online trading platforms, 176–78
open-source corporate strategies, 106–7
Open Source Ecology project, 217
Organic, Inc., 26
Ostrom, Elinor, 216
Pacific Lumber Company, 117
Palmer, Amanda, 38–39, 199
PandoDaily, 197–98
Pandora, 34, 218
Parker, Sean, 191–92
PayPal, 140–41
paywalls, 37–38
peer-to-peer economy/marketplaces, 16–17, 18
alternative corporate models for fostering, 93–97
Bandcamp and, 29–30
central currency as means of shutting down, 128–29
digital transaction networks and, 141
distribution of ability to create and exchange value by, 29–30
eBay and, 29
Known business model versus Blackboard’s in fostering, 95–97
obsolescence of, as effect of corporations, 70–71, 73
Sidecar business model versus Uber’s in fostering, 93–94
pensions, 170–71
Perez, Carlota, 98, 99
personhood, of corporations, 72, 73–74
Amazon and, 90
artificial intelligence and, 91
perspective painting, 235
Piketty, Thomas, 53–54, 131
Pitbull, 36
Pius X, Pope, 228–29, 230
platform cooperatives, 220–23
platform monopolies, 82–93, 101
acceleration in extraction of value and opportunity from economy and, 92–93
Amazon (publishing industry) and, 87–90
becoming entire environment and, 87
creative destruction and, 83–87
distributive alternatives to, 93–97
Uber (transportation industry) and, 85–87
Plum Organics, 119
Poole, Steven, 201
populists, 99–100
positive reinforcement, 28
Pound Foolish (Olen), 170
power-law distribution, 26–29, 30
precious metals currencies, 128
present shock, 6
price gouging, 86
privatization, 114–16
Proctor & Gamble, 107–8
productivity gains
corporations failure to capitalize on, 77
great decoupling and, 53
income disparity and, 53–54
sharing of, with employees, 60–62
Prosper Marketplace, 203, 204
publishing industry, 87–89
Publix Super Markets, 117–18
quantitative easing, 137
Quirky, 199
Reagan, Ronald, 64
Real Pickles, 205–6
Renaissance, 45, 71, 230, 235–37
repatriation of jobs, 80
retirement savings plans, 170–75
fees and commissions charged for, 173–74
financial services industry and, 171–73, 175
401(k) plans and, 171–74
individual retirement accounts (IRAs), 171
pension accounts and, 170–71
performance of, 173–75
retrieval, 71–72, 73
return on assets (ROA), 76–77
Rifkin, Jeremy, 62
Roaring Twenties, 99
robotic ad-viewing programs, 37
Rolling Jubilee, 153
Rosenberg, Dan, 205–6
Rothschild, Lynn Forester de, 111
Ryan, Paul, 138
Ryan, William F., 63
Santa Barbara Missions, 156
scarcity, 62
Scholz, Trebor, 50, 223
Schor, Juliet, 58
Schumpeter, Joseph, 83, 84, 85
Second Machine Age, The (Brynjolfsson & McAfee), 23
secrecy, 106–7
seed-sharing networks, 217
self-help cooperatives, 159
Series A round of investment, 188–89
shareholder
. See investors/investing
sharing economy, 44–54, 218
crowdsharing apps and, 45–49
crowdsourcing platforms and, 49–50
employment opportunities, technology as replacing and obsolescing, 51–54
getting paid for our data and, 44–45
great decoupling and, 53
jobs assisting with transition to computerized society and, 51–52
learning to code and, 51
Shift Happens (Hagel), 76–77
Shirky, Clay, 27
Sidecar, 93–94
Silk Road, 145
singularity, 91
Slay, Julia, 58
Smith, Adam, 212–13
Snapchat, 32
social branding, 35–37
social graphs, 40
social media, and “likes” economy, 31–37
Somerhalder, Ian, 36
South by Southwest, 19
specialists, 178–79
Spotify, 218
Square, 141
Stallman, Richard, 216
stamp scrip, 158–59
startups, 184–205
angel investors and, 187, 188
burn rate and, 190
crowdfunding and, 198–201
direct public offerings (DPOs) and, 205–6
Google’s IPO, 194–95
hypergrowth expected of, 187–91
microfinancing platforms and, 202–4
model for building real and sustainable businesses, 196–98
playbook for establishing, 187
reverse engineering of, 184–86
Series A round of investment and, 188–89
venture capital and, 189–95
steady-state enterprises, 98–123
alternative corporate structures and, 118–23
appropriate size for business, finding, 104–5
benefit corporations and, 119
contracting with small and medium-sized enterprises and, 112
dividends as means of rewarding shareholders and, 113–14
dual transformation and, 108–9
ecosystem as model for assembling, 105
employee ownership of company and, 116–18
extractive bias of traditional corporate model, eschewing, 104
family business model and, 103–4, 231–32
flexible purpose corporations and, 119–20
growth, shifting away from, 103–6
hybrid approaches to attaining, 106–12
inclusive capitalism and, 111–12
low-profit limited liability company (L3C) and, 120–21
not-for-profits (NFPs) and, 121–23
open sharing and collaborative corporate strategies and, 106–7
privatization and, 114–16
shareholder mentality, changing, 112–18
technological revolutions, phases of, 98–102
stimulative economic policies, 136, 137
stock market crash of 1929, 99
storytelling, 236
Strickler, Yancey, 198
student debt, 153
subsidiarity, 231–32
supermarket chains, hybrid strategies for, 109–10
Supplier Connection, 112
surge pricing, 86
synergy, 99
Talmud, 208
Tapscott, Don, 49n
Target, 142
TaskRabbit, 222
tax anticipation scrip, 159
taxi industry, 85–86
TD Waterhouse, 176
Tea Party, 99–100
technological revolutions, 98–102
creative destruction and, 83–87
destructive destruction and, 100
frenzy phase of, 98–99
government intervention and, 99–100
irruption phase of, 98
maturity phase of, 98–99
synergy phase of, 99
turning point phase of, 99
Thatcher, Margaret, 64
theAudience, 36
Thiel, Peter, 120, 191–92
This Changes Everything (Klein), 135
3-d printing, 62–63
360 deals, 34
time dollar systems, 161–63
toy industry, 85
Toyoda, Akio, 105–6
Toyota Motor Corporation, 105–6
tragedy of the commons, 215–16
Treehouse, 59
Tumblr, 32
turning point, 99
Twitter, 7, 8–9, 195
tyranny of choice, 30
Uber, 4, 93, 94, 98–99, 188, 213, 219, 222, 229
peer-to-peer commerce enabled by, 45, 46
as platform monopoly, 85–87
pricing power of, 47–48
unemployment insurance, 99
unemployment solution, 54–67
guaranteed minimum income programs and, 62–65
guaranteed minimum wage public jobs and, 65–66
hourly-wage employment, history of, 56
joblessness as feature of new digital economy and, 55–56
questioning need for work and, 56–58
real needs, getting paid to address, 65–67
reducing 40-hour workweek and, 58–60
sharing productivity gains with employees and, 60–62
Unilever, 112, 205
United Steel Workers, 220
Upwork, 51, 200
USA Today, 173
velocity of money, 140–41
venture capital, 189–95
Vicarious, 119–20
Victorian exhibition, 20
Volkswagen, 106
Wall Street Journal, 7, 8, 37–38
Walmart, 47, 73–75, 110–11
Watson, 90–91
wealth inequality. See income disparity
Welch, Jack, 132
welfare state, 99
Whole Foods, 109
Wiener, Norbert, 52
Wikinomics (Tapscott & Williams), 49n
Wikipedia, 49, 207, 215, 219
Williams, Anthony D., 49n
Williams, Evan, 7–8
Wilson, Fred, 87, 93, 94
Winklevoss twins, 146, 150
Wired, 187
Wörgl, 157–58
worker-owned collectives, 219–20
workweek, reduction of, 58–60
WorldCom, 133
Worlds Fairs, 19, 20
Xerox, 98
Yahoo, 32
Yahoo Finance, 182
Young, Neil, 199
zero marginal cost society, 62
Zipcar, 218
Zobele, 107–8
Zuckerberg, Mark, 92–93, 120, 146
Zynga, 192–93
* Most notably Chris Sacca, in public statements.
* Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams’s widely read book Wikinomics points to Wikipedia as a new model for mass collaboration and value creation online. They go on to credit Amazon Mechanical Turk with creating valuable new opportunities for the next generation of digital workers.
* I have been participating in the Open Society’s “Future of Work” initiative, and the labor theorists, union leaders, and futurists in attendance—arguably the world’s experts on the future of work—can’t even agree on the parameters for defining a “job” from this point forward.
* The places in the world where subsistence agriculture is no longer possible are themselves largely the victims of colonialism, global market inequities, or Western-owned factory pollution. By most responsibly derived accounts, we have more than enough bounty for the en
tire globe.
* See my book Life Inc., which traces the emergence of corporations in the late Middle Ages. The earliest charters granted to merchants make clear that the right to invest was a concession made from the merchant to the monarch. The merchant didn’t need the cash and didn’t need shareholders but took the investment money in return for exclusivity over a market and the protection of the king’s army.
* Lately, however, Costco’s approach has been winning out. It is one of the few brick-and-mortar discount retailers whose “same-store sales” have been increasing year after year. This may also be because Costco charges an annual membership fee to shop at its stores, which accounts for about 70 percent of its operating income, as well as increased loyalty from its member-customers.
* As of this writing, lawsuits against the company contesting the independent-contractor status of its drivers are under way. Uber is objecting to the notion that it is an employer or anything more than a neutral platform enabling the business dealings between individuals.
* There’s still some debate among participants over how to define DACs, Dapps (decentralized applications), and DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations), as well as the principles to which they must adhere.
* People borrow not opportunistically but irrationally. As if looking at objects in the distance, they see future payments as smaller than ones in the present, even if they are actually larger. They are more reluctant to lose a small amount of money than they are eager to gain a larger one—no matter the probability of either event in a particular transaction. They do not consider the possibility of any unexpected negative development arising between the day they purchase something and the day they will ultimately have to pay for it.
* That’s what happened in the famous Enron scandal, when the energy company used pension funds as part of its illegal investment scheme, costing employees $2 billion of their own retirement savings.
* Midas List venture capitalists in 2013 did a study in which Pando was determined to be one of the five most trusted media brands for venture capitalists, along with the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and TechCrunch.
* A Web site where designers compete to create logos for companies, and only the winning designer gets paid.
* And of course, widespread corruption within the Vatican itself played no small role in the collapse of the value system it was supposed to be promoting.
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