Why do governments and corporations get bigger and bigger? Do they get bigger because increases in technology make them more complicated? Why do corporations get too-big-to-fail? Why are labor unions becoming more powerful even as their membership shrinks?
America is fiercely divided today just as it was in 1861 at the start of the American Civil War. One of the many issues that divide us today is whether our society should be led by big government or big business. Can we have a “free market” if we’re led by big business? Most people … Read more
Organizations in general are growing in power. In an earlier post, I discussed how governments are getting bigger and more powerful with time. In another post I showed how corporations are doing the same. But the truth is that organizations in general are increasing their power, and all for the same reasons. Even organizations whose … Read more
Corporations do not get bigger because they get more complicated. Rather, corporations get more complicated because they get bigger. In my earlier post, I presented Jane Jacobs’ argument that by their nature governments get bigger and their growth causes them to get more complicated. But Jacobs also applied the same principle to private organizations, like … Read more
Conventional wisdom says the nature of government makes it grow more and more complicated, and that makes it grow bigger. But is that true? Can we think outside that box? Jane Jacobs – housewife, city hall rabble-rouser, and natural-born genius – took this problem of the growth of government and turned it inside-out: The English … Read more
