We’re reading an interesting piece by Kevin Carson on OpenManufacturing who discusses the challenges of switching manufacturing from today’s highly centralized, mass produced, container shipped model to a more distributed, local and “home” based manufacturing world.
Obviously there are challenges to providing appropriately capable equipment and software for such ventures, but in the piece Carson mentions another dimension of barrier to microenterprise: Legal obstacles. He recommends:
- Scaling back health and safety regulations and associated licensing, particularly where homeowners already have the devices onsite for personal use
- Eliminating zoning codes that force businesses into specific commercially-designated areas, which really doesn’t make sense when today’s microbusinesses are effectively invisible, unlike 20th century factory businesses
We would add another one to that list: reforming patent and copyright laws to encourage innovation to actually occur, rather than encourage monopolistic control of every imaginable idea by big corporations and patent trolls. A microbusiness cannot survive arbitrary cease and desist orders that might not even be applicable to their operation.
What do you think are the barriers to a distributed economy?
Thanks much for the link.
I agree that zoning restrictions on microenterprise don't make much sense in terms of their stated intent, but unfortunately it gets back to the old "Bootleggers and Baptists" thing. Incumbent downtown businesses have every interest in restricting competition from home-based microenterprise, pushcart vendors, and the like.
Your point about "intellectual property" as a barrier to entry or a source of artificial startup cost is an excellent one. One reason for optimism IMO is that the rapid dissolution of the mass-production economy into tens of thousands of micromanufacturers serving neighborhood markets will render patent enforcement much more difficult. The transaction costs of enforcing patent law in a mass-production economy are low because you've got a small number of oligopoly firms producing a small number of goods for distribution through a handful of retail chains, so it's pretty easy to spot and report violations. When the knockoff of a proprietary design, or the production of generic spare parts for a proprietary design, is done in small batches for a small local market, the costs of enforcement will probably exceed the monetary value of the patent — especially given the enormous costs of filing one.
Thanks much for the link.
I agree that zoning restrictions on microenterprise don't make much sense in terms of their stated intent, but unfortunately it gets back to the old "Bootleggers and Baptists" thing. Incumbent downtown businesses have every interest in restricting competition from home-based microenterprise, pushcart vendors, and the like.
Your point about "intellectual property" as a barrier to entry or a source of artificial startup cost is an excellent one. One reason for optimism IMO is that the rapid dissolution of the mass-production economy into tens of thousands of micromanufacturers serving neighborhood markets will render patent enforcement much more difficult. The transaction costs of enforcing patent law in a mass-production economy are low because you've got a small number of oligopoly firms producing a small number of goods for distribution through a handful of retail chains, so it's pretty easy to spot and report violations. When the knockoff of a proprietary design, or the production of generic spare parts for a proprietary design, is done in small batches for a small local market, the costs of enforcement will probably exceed the monetary value of the patent — especially given the enormous costs of filing one.