Re: [ox-en] Difference between Physical and Information production
- From: Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 gmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:21:58 +0700
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I have this:
http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/sam-rose-on-the-end-of-walmart/2009/04/18
'
*Sam Rose:*
*“My 2 cents on Walmart (this is not an argument for, or against anything
anyone has said here already) is that, from a *systems* perspective, they
cannot sustain their size and methods forever. *
*There are several reasons why:*
*Regional and local distribution systems are emerging across the US that
will collectively compete with WalMart’s primary market-making system: which
is to demand that suppliers offer them the lowest price for widest
distribution. *
*Walmart’s largest competitor in the Unites States for the next 5 years will
be a collection of millions of Small Businesses. Small business is indeed
still close to 50% of the non-agricultural GDP in US (source:
http://www.sba.gov/advo/press/07-12.html).*
*The difference between “now” (the last 10 years) and the prior decades is
that small businesses are more networked, and have more access to more
infrastructure. Small businesses do better at finding and flexibly filling
niches. All of those niches already add up to a larger total market than the
market served by Walmart. One pattern that is notable in small business
evolution is that as small businesses fill in niches, *new small business
niches emerge*, which creates more room for more small businesses. Also, the
more that small businesses network together, the more that they raise their
chances of collective survival, and the more they will tend to raise the
volume of their individual businesses.*
*The bulk of people that I know here in Michigan, that have small
businesses, are doing really well (especially those associated with Open
source software), while those who have or are looking for “jobs” as
employees with other companies are really struggling. The new “middle class”
looks like it is going to be networked independents.*
*So, how does this equate to “from a *systems* perspective, [Walmart] cannot
sustain their size and methods forever”?*
*As more niche-oriented choices become available, more people will fill more
needs with these niche oriented choices, instead of seeking out
mass-produced goods which require mass communication to create and sustain
demand. Walmart will always exist, and will always have a market. But, it
will be diminished. As the nodes start to network, there will be a threshold
reached, and cascade, and this is the point where the demand for mass
produced products will diminish. It seems unbelievable now. And yet, keep in
mind, not too long ago, General Motors was the largest company in the world.
*
*Filling niches creates more niches, people who come to fill those new
niches learn that working with, and buying from the other small businesses
that they are networked with is in their interest, and this will diminish
current dominant suppliers like WalMart. It won’t be open source anything
alone that undoes WalMart so much as it will be: what people want, and what
they do to solve their problems of existence (and what they see as their
best choice to solve those problems, which I contend will be to collaborate
with already emerging networks of collaborating small businesses).”*
On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 3:35 PM, CTVN <coreteam vodes.net> wrote:
If we, as Sam Rose, suggest, we can create alternative interlocking
SME-based production networks, this may start to change,
do you have some links or more info on this?
best,
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_________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/
Contact: projekt oekonux.de