What exactly did I mean by “consumerism bottom feeders” in my last post you may ask? Well, I think Peter Barnes couldn’t say it better. I found and read his free ebook within a few days of my last post and digging through my notes the era of bottom feeders is summed up as…

After the change, we shifted into surplus capitalism, or what I call Capitalism 2.0. In this version, there’s no limit to what corporations can produce; their problem is finding buyers. A sizable chunk of GDP is spent to make people want this unneeded output. And credit is lavishly extended so they can buy it.

Capitalism and Credit is Out Of Control

Sound familiar? It’s what exist now, and why I wrote my last post. It’s upsetting to think about because you know everyone knows this is true, deep down in side, but they don’t want to admit it. I had a couple of very good conversations this July 4th. One of them went the way of defining what the left perceives the right to be and vice versa.

My observation simply is that the right says everyone must pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and the left says everyone needs a little bit of help. I think we can have the best of both worlds and ensuring capitalism have more than one bottom line might be the way. Peter Barnes says “To put it bluntly, the rich are rich because (through corporations) they get the lion’s share of common wealth; the poor are poor because they get very little.”

What’s next for Capitalism?

So, whats the next steps? Another discussion over the 4th boiled down the whole left vs. right issue of pretty much the only thing in common being “good government”. Now, I wont elaborate on “good” other than “good” is an extension of moral and ethical values, which are usually an extension of religion. However, what should “government” be defined as?

Once again I’ll quote Peter “we must have a proper view of government’s role. That role isn’t to run the economy, or even to manage the commons directly; it’s to assign common property rights to trustworthy guardians who will. ” You will need to read his book Capitalism 3.0 to fully understand the depth and breadth of commons, its deep and wide and didn’t I say it was a free book?

Whats next for you and me?

It’s different for everyone. After the last post I had a big wake up call and that wake up call was that this isn’t going to be easy at all. And here I am, many months later posting late as usual. In the spirit of keeping an open mind, it’s important that everyone is on the same page when discussing the matter. I can’t save the world, but we all can.

Sorry about not posting for some time, I won’t get into details on that but instead dive right in since if you subscribed you care more about what I have to say vs. my personal life.

It looks like Hank Williams and I share some of the same RSS feeds. His recent post on his site WhyDoesEverythingSuck.com in my conclusion mentions that there are many smart minds harping on the fact that 90% of everything is crap.

I would say that Sturgeon’s Law needs to be updated to reflect that it’s more like 99% of everything is crap. The 9% increase coming from the massive increase of the laziness in western countries, globalization and consumerism bottom feeders. So, while everyone is bitching and moaning about why everything sucks there should be some practical and actionable advice (as you can see I’m trying to fit into that 1%). As my dad would say, don’t complain unless your constructive, /slap Hank (just messing with you, 99% of the time your posts are great reads).

So, I’ll aggregate a bit more on what these smart minds are saying (since aggregation is all the rage these days), extend on their advice, attempt to glean some of their inference and provide you with my agenda and eventually where you can help.

Tim Oriely

I think Tim Oriely says it well to “not follow the headlines” in the context of entrepreneurism and web/software development. This reminds me of the investment advice that warns against doing the opposite of a trend because a stampede of bulls or bears will run you over or eat you alive. What I like about what Tim is saying is that there needs to be a new trend, a new direction. So, no worries of being run over just yet.

Tim’s specific suggestions noted on ReadWriteWeb.com ring the bell of “let’s change the world for the better” as seen from this list below…

• Changing government structure
• Publicmarkup.org
• Everyblock
• InStedd
• Tracking illegal deforestation using Google Earth
• Earth Day
• An Inconvenient Truth
• wattzon.org (how we use our energy)

Umair Haque

To get straight to the point Umair’s advice is the following “So here’s my challenge. If you’re a revolutionary, then be one: put your money where your mouth is, and fix a big problem that changes the world for the better - if you really have the courage, the purpose, and the vision, that is.”. If you don’t know who Umair is then I highly advise reading up on him.

So, let’s rack up another point for the broad goal of “let’s change the world for the better”.

He then goes on to actually walk in the “world changing” shoes and says “In fact, I’ll happily put my money where my mouth is. I think these problems are so important, I’ll take a bit of time away from setting up my new lab, to advise five startups, funds, or companies that I think have the greatest insight into fixing them - you know how to get in touch with me.”.

So, no direct examples on how Silicon Valley or the two kids in the garage next door can actually go about this. Before we go there let’s see what Paul Grahm had to say.

Paul Grahm

Paul attacks the venture capital industry standard decisions they use for funding companies. He says the system is broken and needs to re-invent themselves to play the percentages with more smaller investments vs. fewer larger investments.

Now, this is good as it will indirectly contribute to “let’s change the world for the better”. VC’s have oceans full of cash and the inability to figure out a system to get the most gain from their risk (except Paul Grahm). So, more investments means more companies have the opportunity to change the world.

But wait, the internet has changed the world for the better!

Let’s keep in mind the context of this post. Internet 1.0 has and continues to break down barriers and the middle man like nothing else ever has. But, the problem has been mainly the last 3-4 years of 99% Internet crap!.

A web site can’t make rice pop out of a monitor like popcorn from jiffy pop and solve the worlds rice shortage. Nor can it turn your spare CPU cycles into some sort of net gain electricity generator (hmm, there’s an idea). So, what are the next steps and how can the Internet “change the world for the better”?

Putting on the World Changing Shoes

I don’t have the actual solutions, but, I’m going to instead share with you a methodical approach to this in a new project of mine focused on “let’s change the world for the better, together!”. Here’s what I will be doing.

1. Look at the actual big problems that the world currently faces and or will very soon (not re-inventing the researched wheel on this one, just aggregating as a 1st step).
2. Drill down into each one and discover current efforts, where there are gaps in those efforts and where can those efforts be served so that they accomplish their goals quicker and more efficiently (there goes the entrepreneurial mind in me, ironically my new job started last week with the University of Washington Foster School of Business).
3. Then, either start work on something that comes out of step 2 or something with more of a global effort that facilities that process for others.

That’s for the next posts, which I promise won’t be 2 months from now! So, stay tuned. I’ll most likely be creating a .org that will house this effort and allow others to partake in the process. It would be a shame to not share my efforts with others and I doubt this blog can truly present everything fully and or facilitate cooperation. If you know of any sites like this then please comment and let me know.