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One possible interpretation of this trend is that it is yet another manifestation of the neoliberal era. With the steady loss of job security and other benefits
by elvinyung 8y ago
One possible interpretation of this trend is that it is yet another manifestation of the neoliberal era. With the steady loss of job security and other benefits from stable employment, along with a society that repeatedly stresses the virtues of individualism and "hustle", it looks increasingly attractive for people to strike out on their own.
Through that lens, one might say that while this article focuses on some successful cases, it ignores the incredible hardship of this ordeal, and the thousands of failures that have happened happening to other people (or even the same people) attempting the exact same thing.
That said, this looks mostly like the future that I want to see. I think that the future is local (maybe even hyperlocal) and a world in which both producers and consumers are more attuned to locality and spatiality drastically widens the possibility space of new experiences.
I think the most radical interpretation of what I actually want to see is a future that's less Darwinian, one in which people can be artisans without also spending most of their lives being entrepreneurs.
- nicoburns 8y agoTo me it feels more like a reactipn against neoliberalism, and a return to more traditional ways of living and working. I see it as possibly quite a positive way of dealing with jobs being automated away. Who cares how efficent production is if we have other companies producimng stuff efficently already. Let's use the time that efficiency buys us to make something special and unique.
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoI think it's always been around, but it's only recently, thanks to the internet and good economic prospects and people with a lot of expendable income, that these breweries have become viable again. Previously, only the bigger breweries with the bigger distribution networks were viable. And before that, before the distribution networks and marketing campaigns, it was back down to local breweries. Prohibition also had a big impact on the alcohol business in the US.
- 0x445442 8y agoI think there's been an under supply of quality in goods and services for some time. The problem is the economies that can support quality are generally located around geographical centers where the main economic drivers are parasitic. Places like New York, Silicon Valley and the D.C. can support these businesses; Fresno, not so much.
- mxuribe 8y agoI really like this sentiment: "...people can be artisans without also spending most of their lives being entrepreneurs." Cheers!