Completely, totally agree. I was just discussing this today with my business partner; I think that many people won't even know what to do with extra money if i

Completely, totally agree. I was just discussing this today with my business partner; I think that many people won't even know what to do with extra money if it is given to them. That's never happened before - there's always been the "well, we could use more servers" or "well, we could always hire more engineers" argument. Today, I think a lot of people are beginning to realize that 1) if you engineer your applications properly, and on the right platforms, you can scale your server demands along with your userbase/revenues; 2) more engineering/other assorted human capital won't necessary translate into better, more usable product. I personally believe this is the beginning of a massive shift, and one that isn't even tied to the economy - but, of course, will be dramatically accelerated as a result of it. On the point of what happens to the startup community, however - I think it will be a lot harder to start a me-too company and get any traction; as a result, even with the lower cost of business, there will be fewer people able to enjoy the benefits. It's sort of like the rest of the economy - if you are the absolute best at what you do, it's a great time to be in business; for everyone else, the situation is precarious. Running on $3000 a month is great, but not if that means you're losing $3000 a month with no foreseeable way of recouping your investment. Perhaps that's where the VCs will step in - sweep those flailing enterprises under their wings, pump greater capital/human resources into them, and try to brute-force them into successful enterprises. In effect, they would become the startup version of their private-equity peers; not a bad place to be, but again - the best will survive, the rest will die.