One of the reasons that small business is the greatest generator of new jobs is that small business is most responsive to the business cycle. The Gargantua Computer Corp was like a massive battleship; it took years for it to change course. Even faced with a recognized problem there was no way for it to effect an immediate change. Everything had to be planned two years or more in advance (looking back I can now see early evidence of the decision to terminate our work group, a variety of clues that I overlooked, or misinterpreted, at the time).
Small business is like a swallow arcing through the air, darting to avoid economic obstacles, plunging on targets of opportunity, getting to the worm before everyone else. My sense is that this highly responsive characteristic of small business will play a vital role in any future response to global climate change (better described as Anthropogenic Global Warming or AGW).
I am sure that I just dropped half the audience at this point (I hope the other reader continues on with her reading). Despite a significant attempt to discredit the science and confuse the public, the fact of the matter (and this blog is dedicated to facticity) is that there is near universal agreement among climate scientists on the fact of AGW. There is some debate on the degree of change and the rapidity of change and the potential for various feedback mechanisms to slow, or advance, the rate of warming. But there is scientific consensus on the fact of warming. Those who would challenge this fact are members of the Flat Earth Society. Or they are politicians acting as sales persons for institutions dependent on the sale of CO2 emitters. Or they are failed geographers who have jumped into the debate despite not having any background in climate science, despite not having published in any peer reviewed publication, despite the fact that they are paid advocates and not dis-interested researchers, despite the fact that the “press” is so scientifically challenged that they are unable to recognize the difference between valid science and boosterism, between research and hucksterism, between objective fact and paid advertising.
Glad I got that out of my system.
I love bicycles. I was a daily cycle commuter until they pushed our workplace so deep into the wilderness of Kanata that my round trip time exceeded four hours; add in a 10 hour work day and 8 hours of sleep and you can see why I had to give up the cycle commute.
My belief is that the nature of our urban architecture is changing and will continue to morph toward the creation of “locales.” These locales will be oriented toward human powered locomotion: pedestrianism, cycling, flaneurs, roller blading, skate boards, hop scotch. A myriad forms of mobility with a single point of congruence; each of them is powered by an energetic human metabolism. Bringing this vision to fruition will see a redefinition of urban space with each locale hosting a wide variety of needed retail outlets coupled with sufficient variety of divertissements that the locale constitutes a largely self sufficient life environment; everything you need will be within a ten minute walk or a 15 minute cycle. I intend the blog to investigate this future.
And my hunch is that small business is likely to play a major role in the reconfiguration of our economic system. It is the vitality of capitalism that will result in our making a positive global response to the challenge presented by AGW. Statism is deaf and blind. Corporatism is dead business walking. It is the risk taking entrepreneurs who will remake the current economy in the form of a reduced emissions economy. This is not future, blue sky thinking. These are changes that are already underway today but are overlooked, or unreported.
And somehow, out of this improbable mix, there is the intent to create a social enterprise that will direct its revenues toward the creation of a work environment that provides a supportive, adaptive environment. A form of learning organization that will assist all persons with injuries similar to my own to learn how to re-integrate themselves with society in a meaningful and productive way.
- Small business as job creator
- Capitalism as a transformative force
- Cycling
- People Powered Mobility
- Locales
- Learning organization
- Social Enterprise