The defining figure in an agricultural economy is the farmer with a hoe. The defining figure in an industrial economy is the factory worker helping to manufacture back hoes. The defining figure in an information economy is the engineer who works on design plans for the back hoe.
The work of the factory work can substitute for quite a few farmers. (You can see in the above graph that farm workers were about 80-some% of the working population in 1800 and about ~3% of the working population in 1980.)
The knowledge worker, too, can replace a number of factory workers. (Think about how a newly designed robot - the product of a knowledge worker - can replace numerous factory workers.)
My own vision of a movement into an entrepreneurial economy is that the portion of the work force categorized as entrepreneur will grow as did the factory worker in the 1800s and the information (or knowledge) worker in the 1900s.
Manufacturing in the 1500s involved little alteration to raw materials: wheat was ground, wool was spun, and grapes crushed and aged. Yet by the 1800s the processing was more sophisticated. Manufacturing assumes a mature market for raw goods - and the manufacturer uses raw goods as inputs to a process that creates more value than the mere trade of raw goods.
The information economy arose out of the complexity of the industrial economy. As machinery, products, processes, markets, and distribution became more complex, it created a demand for more sophisticated workers. Education that shared knowledge about principles in design, engineering, advertising, and sales became important in the creation of a skilled work force - the best jobs increasingly required university education. The information economy assumes a mature market for capital - and the knowledge workers use capital goods as the material to be manipulated into greater value just as the capitalists uses raw materials to be manipulated into greater value.
We now have a very mature information economy. This forms a great foundation for an entrepreneurial economy that could build on information technology. If entrepreneurship is about bringing together raw materials, capital, and labor (or, more specifically, knowledge workers), then it assumes information networks that make dynamic markets cost-effective. The information economy will be the foundation for the coming entrepreneurial economy.
One difference that will characterize the entrepreneurial economy is the role of the worker. Traditionally, a knowledge worker sold his / her skills to the corporation that transformed those efforts into value on the market in the form of goods or services. Entrepreneurs or managers were responsible for correctly orchestrating such efforts into projects and tasks that created market value; if they did well, these entrepreneurs and managers were handsomely rewarded. The entrepreneurial economy will change that arrangement. An increasing percentage of knowledge workers (a percentage that I suspect will not exceed 30 or 40% by 2050) will work as entrepreneurs themselves. By that I partly mean that they will offer their services through a dynamic market rather than a traditional salaried position. Their pay will be linked to profits from particular projects or activities. We'll have the corporate equivalent of self-organizing complexity rather than central, command and control economies.
This will drive further advances in information technology, just as the industrial revolution transformed agricultural and the information economy has transformed industry. And this change will simply be the start of a more complex change that will transform the modern corporation into something that looks more like an incubator than a bureaucracy.
This will change so many things about how we conceive of corporations today. This and related, required changes will disperse power outwards from paternalistic managers towards individual workers. It will create opportunities that don't exist today. And it will link to the driving force of progress throughout the history of Western Civilization - increased autonomy for the individual.
3 comments:
It's an interesting theory, but you are failing to comprehend the fact that legislation and tax shelters are structured in such a way as to stifle this very movement you are predicting.
You are also failing to recognize the value in this hands on peasant labor which has, sadly, almost been wiped off the face of the Earth, along with the often deeper knowledge which accompanied it.
I am not saying we haven't made significant advances, only that we have discarded some viable ways in favor of less viable ones. For instance, I value our advances in dental care, but resent the sub-par refined food stuffs that make it more essential than ever, while compromising the health of our children.
Traditionalists will confirm that some trades are only performed to absolute satisfaction using ages old methods. I would hate to see these eliminated by your so-called information economy. (Never mind the fact that a lot of this so-called information is just useless repetition by certified morons, which is aimed at creating a false market demand, and ultimately, a Global environmental crisis.)
And also, never mind "paternalistic"– I do not consider what is transpiring to be paternalistic at all. It is both sexes who are equally responsible for the mess we are in, as greed knows no gender limits. Men use greed money to buy sex, and women exploit that. We abandon our duties as nurturers in order to maintain a superfluous wealth standard, and thus we create generation upon generation of wanton greed-heads who lack early childhood nurturing, and thus seek to fill this void with materialism, creating anew this unhealthy cycle. We are all guilty of this.
And I resent your repeated Christianisation of my blog posts. I study faiths comparatively, and what I write on, spiritually speaking, is a reflection of diversity, and of a more accessible spiritual life for us all. One, perhaps, that all faiths can strive for.
Happy Monday Chrlane!
Lots to respond to - I'll try it point by point.
C: ... failing to comprehend ..legislation and tax shelters .. stifle .. movement
R: I think you're right. We're gradually optimizing legislation and behavior towards an information economy (although lots still coddles an industrial economy). Quite a lot of this social momentum gets in the way of popularizing entrepreneurship.
C: .. failing to recognize .. value in this hands on peasant labor ... along with the often deeper knowledge ...
R: True but when 95% of the population is farming, a lot of folks aren't exactly following their calling or realizing their potential. Diversity of work is just one cool perk of progress.
C: resent the sub-par refined food stuffs ...compromising health
R: Great point. Processing of the industrial economy has added lots of value. It's also become a default approach even when (as in the simple case of refined flour vs. whole grain, for instance) such processing does more for pocketbooks than quality of life.
C: ... some trades are only performed to absolute satisfaction using ages old methods
R: And if they are not prohibitively expensive, they'll likely persist. People pay for quality and in a genuine information economy, consumers have information about the differences in quality and can pay accordingly.
C: never mind "paternalistic"
R: I guess I was simply using the term in reference to the role of authority that a priest, bureaucrat, or boss tends to adopt. If it was sexist, it was thoughtlessly so.
C: ... resent your repeated Christianisation of my blog posts ..
R: "Huh?" as we Americans say. Writing about Western Civilization I do refer to the medieval church, but I'm unclear how or when I engaged in Christianisation. I simply don't know what you mean by this.
Thanks!
1)Happy Monday- :Pthhht! I am about as cranky as you are dry, and inclined to root out the negatives in a multicolored post. (Typical Boomer fascist). I am almost always cheerful and bouncy in person so I have to sound a bit gruff in order to be taken seriously.
2)Information economy= utter nonsense. Manufactured term to describe a self-perpetuating economic structure which was set in place in order to support the sale of disposable electronic devices and frequent software updates.
3)Craftsmanship is nearly a dead art thanks to this trend, FYI, and it is less expensive to make something once and properly than it is to make 20 "cheap" knock-offs that keep breaking.
4)Never implied you were being sexist; clearly, though it is on your mind. If anyone here is sexist, it's me. ;)
5)Re. Christian remark, talking about another blog- must have been written by someone else who sounds a heckuva lot like you.
6)Keep going. I love watching you paint yourself into analytical corners. LOL! :)
Post a Comment