Comment 64554

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted June 03, 2011 at 19:22:11

If we really want to see "innovation" take our town by storm, then we need to look at why people aren't doing it.

First, there's zoning laws. It's probably illegal to do it in your home, or a business zoned for any other purpose. You would likely need to locate in a properly zoned area a good distance away if you wanted to produce whatever you designed legally.

Second, there's intellectual property laws which govern what we can all produce, and mean that any designer needs to keep legal professionals on hand just in case somebody else has thought of something similar first.

Third, there's the venture capital firms which rule the loan markets seeking to buy up the rights or patents to "the next big thing". They give a few innovators huge amounts of money, which drives up the cost of innovating, but doesn't do anything for most who haven't been "noticed". If someone is noticed, they can expect to have their idea bought before anything interesting happens with them.

And fourth, if you can get by all of this, you must then deal with retail, which is dominated by a few national chains totally uninterested in local suppliers.

Why don't people innovate? Because they're not allowed to. Because it costs far too much. And because "innovation" is a game rigged so that only the 'big boys' can play.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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