The economic landscape has shifted dramatically. That is what we are told. It certainly seems to be true. I have my reservations but that’s beside the point. The validity of that statement isn’t the focus of this here essay.
No. What seems of utmost importance to weed (stoner laugh) out is whether this supposed shift is good. So for the sake of some truly Fractal – ‘integrative analysis’ let’s say that the Amazon cheerleaders are correct – brick and mortar is dead – human labor is soon to be obsolete.
What are the pros…the cons…the ethics…if any?
There are those that say this will usher in a renaissance of creativity where people freed from the bonds of common toil will create Sistine Chapels whilst sat in their living rooms.
Thus far I don’t see much besides cat videos.
But ok…this Utopia is on the way. Maybe cat portraits are how Michelangelo got his start. I’m game.
Suppose that we have a whole phalanx of virtuoso cellists selling their albums via Amazon to fund a perfected chemotherapy for dwarven children with cancerous buttocks.
Such nobility is surely good? Let’s all scurry to the altar of Bezos and use our Gen Z super powers to be a generation of thinkers, movers, and shakers who through the power of affiliate marketing make dwarven butt less tumorsome.
What of those who know nothing but crab fishing in a depleted bay?
Can everyman learn Javascript? (probably) Should he? Probably not. Seriously outlaw beards…now. Right now!)
This to me is the crux of the problem the place where principle and profit diverge. I can’t for the life of me understand how a culture in which a teenager flatulating into a microphone has more economic prowess than a chowder soup cannery.
Don’t get me wrong. I think the post-industrial thing is kind of cool. But are we really there yet…and if we are…how cool is it…how sustainable is it?
There are many pundits masturbating with chafed abandon over the concept of meritocracy. I see the exact opposite of meritocracy. I see opportunism. Albeit one that is more often than not unwitting.
Herr Bezos IMO is someone who was at the right place at the right time. I’m sure he’s as clever a lad as any and don’t care to dwell on his character but he’s not that impressive. He was there when a technology emerged and was operating in a milieu where capitalizing on that technology proved succesful. A bit of code a bit of business savvy and boom…he’s basically richer than God.
And there are now a billion microbezos attending to their affiliate market feudal fiefdoms and shilling their ‘systems.’
What precisely makes these systems possible? Is it merit? Is it genius? Is it meritorious, merit based boostrapping, asskicking 10 simple steps genius?
Or is it this:
Seems to me that people still have to make things. And 3d printing is still quite a ways from conjuring a cozy three bedroom apartment in Seattle with the Iphone that it craves.
So if one has the choice to make something or to position oneself to sell things others make by learning how to weasel with SEO…and he chooses the former…
Is he a buffoon? A dinosaur? Or should the SEO beardo be less easily rewarded by a handholding matrix of taxcuts, backroom deals, and suburbanly available tech so easy my baby cousin could master it in his sleep. And then use it to buy himself Legoland…
I think that something is deeply amiss. And before we pop the champagne we should do some reflecting.
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