The End of Time... Incorporated
Apropos, or orchestrated, I don't believe in coincidences. After writing on Jeffrey Tucker's recalling of the walking word's words
But many who are first will be last, and the last first. (Mark 10:31)
I read The Guardian's tracking of a recent fall from secular achievement. The Guardian has been scribbling notes, for awhile, as Time Incorporated tumbles. In other words, they are following the flight path of the pterodactyl. Maybe partially delighting in the descent of a renown competitor. You can find the quote below here- the rest of the blood trail goes back a couple of months here, here, here, and here.
Time Inc's historic brands hold out hope for rebirth as company crumbles. Time was once the world's most influential magazine. Its founders virtually invented the modern news weekly and went on to become publishers of some of the most storied and popular titles on the news rack: Sports Illustrated, Fortune, People.
In Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy economist Joseph Schumpeter calls this creative destruction - the structuring and restructuring of free enterprise. Time's destruction will lead to the creation or edification of another enterprise. In the digital era print producers are going through birthing pains to convince us to cough up our coffers. Why pay for news when Twitter, Facebook, and amateur writers are feeding the masses' minds for free? Every story I publish on this blog is my product. I seek something in return for this product. It is not your money that I am asking you to exchange, but I will accept it. I want you to read what I write. I want you to come to the understanding that the State is a problem. Not just in delivering mail and subsidizing corn producers that would fail in a freed market; but in providing roads, protection, and court services. I value your understanding above what I think I could make if I charged for my products. And so I vociferously voice my concerns over this loudspeaker on the interwebs. How can a competitor compete with millions of me selling products for free?
The digital age is inexorably scuttling us to a better world - where more people will have more free selections. If there are no jobs in print, let us find new ways to voluntarily serve one another. Let us play in the rialto like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.