The Global Platform: Connectivity can be both Good and Bad

Tom Barnett responds to my posts on the topic. I agree with him on this. Connectivity can be both good and bad. It's neutral and depends on what you do with it.

Comments

[mark safranski]

A good discussion is flowing.

IMHO - the interesting thing about market connectivity is the feedback dynamic.

Greater rewards flow to societies that structure their rules (and enforce them) to make market action efficient, stable ( relatvely predictable) and safe (again, relatively).

Even when no enforcement is possible, the ongoing flow of connectivity will eventually change the unhappy political situation as new actors acquire the resources to make their presence felt. And the rate of change appears to be geatly compressed today, compared to previous decades or centuries.

[John Robb]

The vast majority of rules in our maximal operating system have been built to protect rentier interests. It is far from efficient and requires us to boil the ocean to enforce. In contrast, it's the entrepreneurs that are leveraging the minimalist global platform (which allows them to route around the maximal system with ease).

[mark safranski]

What are you covering with the term "rentier", John ?

I've heard this complaint from those who deal with emerging markets who want to see those systems open up and I'd have to agree with them and admit that our system has this problem as well, if not to the same extent.

I've also heard extreme proposals to dispose of patents, copyright, contracts etc. Removing those rule-sets rewards copycats over the inventors and innovators. While this would distribute new ideas with greater effficiency I'm not sure it is a good way to sustain high rates of creativity. Lots of ppl can distribute. Few can create something genuinely new.

[Eric]

John--I'm not too familiar with Typepad, but can you easily enable a feed for comments? If so, I'd love easier access to the conversation that doesn't currently make it to the feed reader (see above, and elsewhere).