| Oct. 18th, 2005 @ 07:33 pm A new economy |
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I was thinking about some comments made by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cpxbrex. Nothing in particular, just some general points on socialism. The point is, I think that we (the human race/society) are moving into a fascinating new form of economy. Or at least an interesting expansion of "current" economic principles.
Now, disclaimer time: I don't have a significant background in macro-economics or anything like that, so it's possible that I'm just spouting nonsense. Anyway, here's the basic idea I'm thinking: the rapid expansion of low-cost, stored (that is, not real-time) global communications technology (the internet) and fairly readily available global package delivery technology (though this isn't fully mature yet) allow for people to cater to niche markets that are too thinly spread to be targetted via traditional means.
My big example is the Forge, or at least Forge games (see also CheapassGames). These are games which have an appreciable global market (as in, say, 20,000 customers globally) but in which the market is to dispersed for traditional distribution models to be effective and/or profitable. This is because the market is to unique to be lumped into a general distribution system.
Now, general distribution systems are great for reaping economy of scale effects, but they're terrible for handling things that don't lend themselves to economy of scale effects. Traditionally part of the distribution model has also been marketting, which is interesting in itself.
Now, with the advent of cheap, global, asynchronus communications technology people have formed communities around their niche activities. These are, as earlier stated, too dispersed to be catered to by giant economy of scale utilizing systems, but are well prepared for directed products.
The big cost at the moment is in transport. This is unfortunate because, for the time being, it makes shipping anything other than light goods and information more expensive than most niche markets can support (we won't, for example, see much of a market in concrete speaker boxes despite their excellend accoustic characteristics because the shipping costs are so high).
The point: it's looking like the developing (and hopefully continually developing) technologies involved here are making it more and more feasible for people to get out of the Giant Corporate Dependency thing. Not that corporations are necessarily bad, but they don't really provide well for those who want to do something a bit offbeat (roleplaying design for exmaple) or those who want to supplement their income through hobby production. Further, the lack of truly viable alternatives has made the corporation an over-powered entity in the economic market.
The above is highly rambling, but I think that I may be poking around something that is pretty interesting: the impact of modern communications and transportation technology on nich economies. Maybe someone's doing research on that stuff? If so, and you know about it, I command you to inform me!
Thomas |
