Start with the distribution of power to large corporations, and the income distribution follows suit.

we have deified 'efficiency', and big entities outperform small ones, in the short term, using prevalent, externality-ignoring metrics.

it's the same dynamic as if i joined a co-op of neighbours buying bulk food to save money paying retail.

power in group formation extends by linear logic to explain and partly justify the 'corporate mentality' we see playing out now, where only a few solitary titans gobble up all and sundry.

efficiency...

i order something from the states, it looks cheap, though the shipping comes to as much as the object, it's still worth the outlay, so i order it.

then italian customs block it and want taxes from me to import it. they send me a 3 page form to painstakingly fill out. i call the hotline for help and there's a typically confused bureaucratic reply that leaves me as clueless as before.

i fill out the form, send it, wait another week, and lo, the exact same form arrives again, needing the operation to start all over.

by this point i have found a reasonably priced, though inferior substitute locally, and decide to ditch the futile process of dealing with a comatose bureaucracy. i expect they have sent it back, as that's what they threatened to do while chivvying me to hurry up and fill the form.

this kind of crap is irritating enough at this level, but what if it had been a big order of something perishable, or upon which my business was made or broken, and i'd be yelling like the wingnuts for free trade and all...

this story helped me to understand the fury righties, business groups, (confindustria) have against 'gubmint work' mucking up the smooth swift flow of goods and services. they have a valid point, this is the weak link.

of course this is just the head, the long tail leads to sweatshops and slavery, so fair trade is definitely more sustainable and just, but bureaucracies can be really, really inefficient, with good intentions, but sometimes corrupt, hopelessly stupid implementation.

my shaggy dog story of the day!

sure, corporations need taxing as they hoover up resources, in their insatiable quest for the maximum shareholder dividends, but the taxing process has to be as frictionless as possible, or the baying about 'efficiency', 'lower prices for the consumer' begins, and big is better when it comes to tying up courts, buying political compliance and legislation favouring special (preciousss) interests.

the battles in boardrooms and staterooms are behind closed doors, the public needs more transparency. inefficiency breeds in secrecy, the more that is out in the open, more and better ideas can emerge.

self-organisation...

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~