Re: CONTROL FREAKS

[Adam Shostack <adam@bwh.harvard.edu>]

Todd Masco:

| I think the biggest danger we face is graduaully increasing totalitarianism
|  across the board, through mechanisms such as GATT and European Union --
|  there seems to be a world-wide push to smooth differences among nations
|  out into a single (yes, here it comes) "New World Order."

	While the harmonization of laws can threaten freedoms, it can
also substantially reduce the cost of doing buisness in multiple
jurisdications, while only slightly reducing the amount of
jurisdictional hacking that can be dome to protect yourself from
governments.

	The substantial reductions in cost that harmonization bring
will create stronger multinational companies, while weakening the
control of governments.  As multinationals grow in strength,
governments become more willing to bow before them; witness the
bidding war that both Toyota and BMW got state governments into when
building plants lately.

	The New World Order being created is one of multinationals
that control huge amounts of money, capital and talent.  Companies
such as Honda, Mitsubishi, IBM, GE, Boeing and AT&T control a goodly
portion of the world.  And they are not able to react to market
conditions as fast as smaller companies that are eating their lunch.

	The order created, much to the dismay of Governments and the
CEOs of these companies, will be one where small companies manage to
do much that big companies do today, and do it cheaper and better.
Exceptions come in a few areas where economies of scale really exist;
aircraft and computer chips spring to mind.

	The real new world order will not be controlled by any 'super
power,' (althoguh we will have to contend with the remains of the
great powers for a long time), but by the international nature of
buisness, which doesn't like the added cost of working in a
totalitarian state.

Adam