A simple corollary question might be:
Why don't we find "coop" style services to compete with the
multi-opoloies? The main thing I know of in this nature is the "Credit
Union". Are these truly regulated out of possibility by the
lobby-interests? Or are we just too lazy? Or is it too hard to agree
to do anything like this without a profit motive?
My candidates:
Telecom services (esp. cellular)
Insurance
Gasoline (yes there are local coops related to the farming industry)
Car Rental
One approach to Glen/Eric's observations is to take small steps that
actually help you too.
I'm having a terrible time with cellular phones. I want a truly
mobile phone which implies GSM, not the weird non-standard american
technologies. But ATT sucks and TMobile appears to be going out of
business (Deutsche Telekom, who owns TMobile wants to pull out of the
US market.)
So I started looking into other alternatives and found a list of all
carriers in the US (Cricket is one of them, for example)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_wireless_communications_service_providers
But I then stumbled into the MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator)
idea: companies who buy wholesale quantities of cellular services from
the big guys and resell it to you for a reasonable price and personal
service.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_MVNO
I'm considering one of these. The upside is that you can completely
avoid contracts. You can also just buy the phone you want rather than
having to use whatever the telco wants you to use. Yes this appears
to be expensive, but buying an unlocked phone easily pays for itself
within the life of the phone.
The main point is that steps towards independence can be made
reasonably. One of the MVNO's for example specializes in supporting
green energy. They're sorta micro industries that use the big guys
tech but match your needs better.
I hope we see a lot more like the MVNOs in other areas like credit
cards, paypal alternatives, and so on.
-- Owen
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
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============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
