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Do we (as a society) still need business, jobs, companies and corporations?
Jobs, business, companies and corporations do not occur naturally in nature. They are social constructions - items created to serve a purpose.
Their origins can be traced to the Industrial Revolution were their predecessors were created in order to make use of the new technology that was available. For example, where work had once meant running a farm, the new idea of a "job" - a package of work - was created to organise people in the factories.
Ignoring the depression and similar incidents, all in all, this has worked well. Businesses, jobs, companies and the like have raised everyone out of poverty by providing all of our basic needs - like food, shelter, education and medicine and clothing - at low costs. Thanks to the hard work of our forebears, these days, we live in an Age of Affluence - where we have enough products to satisfy everyone needs.
As such, it seems the need for having business, jobs, companies and corporations is gone. We now longer need to be lifted from poverty - as we have arrived.
So do we still need them? Should we be looking at better ways to organise society?
---
PS. I put this question under career development, because the answer will affect how my career will develop over the next 60-70 years. In only the last 10, I've seen the great changes brought about by the internet, so I'm trying to get a grasp what will happen next.
And I believe you can already see the facturing at the edges of these social structures. For example, micro-commerce and the long tail are eating away at the traditional concepts and people are choosing to down-size and opt out of consumer capitalism - rather than push for bigger and better jobs and careers.
“I presume this question to falls into the rhetorical category, therefore I suggest you may want to spend sometime reading ancient and medieval history and economy of Asia. The reading by itself will answer this question of your's.”
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Do you recommend any books specifically? What ideas did you take away from them?
For starters I suggest you check the link on wikipedia. If your interest is piqued enough I'm sure you will find enough publications on your own to review the business environment around the world prior to the industrial revolution.
It is unfortunate that not enough has been published in the realm and context of business practices prior to the era of industrial revolution that you refer to. Most works are basic academic exercises in the study and documentation of human history only.
It is not hard to comprehend that if formal trade routes existed then there was some kind of organized commerce, which would necessitate the existence of some kind of organized manufacturing activity. All this would have created some kind of economic activity and which would have created wealth and had some impact on the social structure of the populace involved in such activities.
You will find several references to such instances as described above in the literary works of various writers from the ancient to the medieval ages.
So the notion that an organized business and accompanying social / economic structure is of recent vintage is a fallacy. The accompanying corollary that such social structures have or will become obsolete in the future is therefore fallacious also.
I am an avid fan of science fiction, in the '70's when everyone thought utopia was right around the corner a lifestyle of blissful retirement at age 30 in the near future was propagated. Now in the 21st century we find that most people do want to have jobs to be able to sustain their increased economic consumption, as well as to last them through their increased life span due to the marvels of science.
If you are one of the few that has thought of and can opt out of consumer capitalism you are indeed very, very, very lucky and privileged to do so. You represent a very minute fraction of a minuscule percentage of people worldwide who can do so voluntarily, the rest are still trying to attain that level of affluence, so the cycle will keep going on, keep being rediscovered and reinvented over and over again.
I hope I don't sound cynical nor is it my intent to do so, but I find that the more new fangled and revolutionary a certain idea is made out to be if you dig far and hard enough you will find someone, somewhere else has already come up with it beforehand.
Last but not the least the talk of the internet bringing people together and closer is indeed ironic for a society that at first wanted to have anonymity so moved away from the close family and local social community structure through the use of technology, is now trying to rebuild those social networks albeit in the virtual world.
Cheers,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road
Do we (as a society) still need business, jobs, companies and corporations?
Jobs, business, companies and corporations do not occur naturally in nature. They are social constructions - items created to serve a purpose.
Their origins can be traced to the Industrial Revolution were their predecessors were created in order to make use of the new technology that was available. For example, where work had once meant running a farm, the new idea of a "job" - a package of work - was created to organise people in the factories.
Ignoring the depression and similar incidents, all in all, this has worked well. Businesses, jobs, companies and the like have raised everyone out of poverty by providing all of our basic needs - like food, shelter, education and medicine and clothing - at low costs. Thanks to the hard work of our forebears, these days, we live in an Age of Affluence - where we have enough products to satisfy everyone needs.
As such, it seems the need for having business, jobs, companies and corporations is gone. We now longer need to be lifted from poverty - as we have arrived.
So do we still need them? Should we be looking at better ways to organise society?
---
PS. I put this question under career development, because the answer will affect how my career will develop over the next 60-70 years. In only the last 10, I've seen the great changes brought about by the internet, so I'm trying to get a grasp what will happen next.
And I believe you can already see the facturing at the edges of these social structures. For example, micro-commerce and the long tail are eating away at the traditional concepts and people are choosing to down-size and opt out of consumer capitalism - rather than push for bigger and better jobs and careers.
“I presume this question to falls into the rhetorical category, therefore I suggest you may want to spend sometime reading ancient and medieval history and economy of Asia. The reading by itself will answer this question of your's.”
*
Do you recommend any books specifically? What ideas did you take away from them?
For starters I suggest you check the link on wikipedia. If your interest is piqued enough I'm sure you will find enough publications on your own to review the business environment around the world prior to the industrial revolution.
It is unfortunate that not enough has been published in the realm and context of business practices prior to the era of industrial revolution that you refer to. Most works are basic academic exercises in the study and documentation of human history only.
It is not hard to comprehend that if formal trade routes existed then there was some kind of organized commerce, which would necessitate the existence of some kind of organized manufacturing activity. All this would have created some kind of economic activity and which would have created wealth and had some impact on the social structure of the populace involved in such activities.
You will find several references to such instances as described above in the literary works of various writers from the ancient to the medieval ages.
So the notion that an organized business and accompanying social / economic structure is of recent vintage is a fallacy. The accompanying corollary that such social structures have or will become obsolete in the future is therefore fallacious also.
I am an avid fan of science fiction, in the '70's when everyone thought utopia was right around the corner a lifestyle of blissful retirement at age 30 in the near future was propagated. Now in the 21st century we find that most people do want to have jobs to be able to sustain their increased economic consumption, as well as to last them through their increased life span due to the marvels of science.
If you are one of the few that has thought of and can opt out of consumer capitalism you are indeed very, very, very lucky and privileged to do so. You represent a very minute fraction of a minuscule percentage of people worldwide who can do so voluntarily, the rest are still trying to attain that level of affluence, so the cycle will keep going on, keep being rediscovered and reinvented over and over again.
I hope I don't sound cynical nor is it my intent to do so, but I find that the more new fangled and revolutionary a certain idea is made out to be if you dig far and hard enough you will find someone, somewhere else has already come up with it beforehand.
Last but not the least the talk of the internet bringing people together and closer is indeed ironic for a society that at first wanted to have anonymity so moved away from the close family and local social community structure through the use of technology, is now trying to rebuild those social networks albeit in the virtual world.
Cheers,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road
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