The company would have to have a niche, like InfoSec, which is in demand. Hardening and testing, for example.
That is precisely the problem. Niches exist only for a short time. Low paying niches last longer. High paying niches disappear quickly.
Serious question related to this issue: Why did feudalism arise in Europe in the 800-1000? During that time, there was a serious breakdown of central authority with the Viking raids and invasions. Economically, the wars were destroying any commerce and money was not available.
In such an environment, people facing starvation or the next raid will give authority to someone who has the charisma or force of personality to make others obey in the hope that they will survive.
We are in an economic war. People around the world want the income we used to make. In such a situation, most people will submit to someone else in the hope that they will survive. Unfortunately, history is full of leaders taking advantage of such situations. We see that in feudal history where the leaders got into senseless wars, built cathedrals, and took advantage of their positions in many other ways. Today, we see it in corporations and borkers taking advantage of the workers.
The counter balance to that taking advantage has historically been "religious" groups using a communal structure. Unfortunately, those have lasted a couple of generations at most before degenerating. The Amana Colonies lasted about 100 years. The Benedictine Monastary at Cluny became quite wealthy and led to the rise of competing orders.
I would suspect that in Internet time, a "generation" would not last more than a few years. That puts an addional burden on the company: how to keep finding new niches and training the people so that the company can continue to pull in outlier levels of income? Companies "revert to the norm" both in income and practices.
I do not wish to prevent you from trying, but the head winds against succeeding are quite strong. Only a group of very dedicated people will be able to find a path in this situation and that may be by luck instead of by smarts.
David, the niche I'm interested in is how *do* people survive when under economic stress? IMO, it's going to be a very rewarding (in terms of a win-win outcome) niche to be in because all Western nations are going to face economic stress. The U.S. may not be that far behind the PIGS. And who knows how long the downward cycle will last?
I agree that throughout history people have "submit[ted] to someone else in the hope that they will survive". And we could amend this to "some
thing" like a communist or capitalist economic system.
What about your counterexample - the '"religious" groups using a communal structure'? If they "lasted about 100 years" and became wealthy and were able to spawn replicas, that's not bad.
I submit that they succeeded because their members were able to cooperate because their belief in God subsumed their self-interest. I believe that a person's spiritual path should be completely personal, so I don't advocate a religious motivation for cooperation. What I think may work are computer-based psychosocial tools for cooperation. We're starting to see the social part with Web 2.0. I believe that the psychological aides part will come next.
A part of this niche is new forms of education. It *has* to change. I don't think anyone, Left or Right, disagrees with this. 21st century education is going to be constructionist and highly personalized. There are almost unlimited IT opportunities in education.
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