Production 2.0
By Tommy Leung on 01/15/2011 in Marketing, Tech
Since the Great Recession or the Greatest Depression began in late 2007/early 2008, many people have appeared on television and given their opinions and predictions on what was happening, what will happen, and how to fix it. Some were initially blind to the approaching cliff, others continued to be blind as they sped towards it, and a small minority saw it from a mile away.
It is inevitable that we will rise out of these poor economic conditions by hook or by crook. No single market player or government force can overcome the prevailing powers of the market at large. The only questions are when? and how much suffering we’ll have to endure? The small minority that saw this economic apocalypse looming in the distance are largely dead right on everything as their predictions continue to become reality.
The recommended medicine from this group is to cut government spending, pay down debt, and start producing things in America again. I am in congruence with the first two recommendations but, have good reason to reject the third. I am not rejecting the idea of production, just the idea that America needs to manufacture trinkets and widgets in order to have a stable, thriving economy and avoid a catastrophic reduction in the standard of living.
In order to support this claim, I will discuss the flaws of economic indicators that are driving the logic behind the necessity of manufacturing and then explain why production is not manufacturing but, manufacturing is production. Using that as a foundational basis I will explain how the innovations in the digital age hides a massive amount of production that is currently immeasurable and how that offsets the need to manufacture.
| Tweet |
