I’m a tech market analyst who’s grown increasingly concerned about rising socioeconomic inequality in the United States in recent decades and I finally decided to do something about it. I think there’s a connection between these two topics that hasn’t really been explored in depth to date, so I figured I’d toss my fedora into the ring through this site.
I’m really glad you’re here! I hope you share the same passion, which I believe has all sorts of interesting tendrils hanging off of it.
At first, I was just going to blog about socioeconomic inequality and high tech- and web-related tools and processes in my spare time (I nabbed this domain and the Twitter handle @wikicapitalism in 2014, so please go follow me there!). Over time, though, the connections between these topics, and several others, such as how capitalist market systems function overall, grew to the point that it took on a book-like form in my mind. Instead of posting scattershot blogs, I pulled back, read many more books, scientific papers and articles to fill in historical holes, did some original interviews, reporting and analysis, and the result of all that are the wikicapitalism ebooks that I’m in the processes of “publishing” on this site.
Yes, I’m also in the market for a “real” book publishing deal. If you like what you see here and you work for a publisher or know a book publisher who’s interesting in the topics covered in my ebooks, please reach out and contact me! It would be great to not just get Wikicapitalism published as a printed book but as an ebook, an audio book, etc.
I’ve think I’ve reached a different conclusion about what’s been driving up America’s socioeconomic divisions since the end of World War II than many others who’ve explored this topic, and my background as a high tech market analyst has colored by thinking about what to do about it. The result is a practice that I’ve decided to call wikicapitalism. Volume I of the ebook defines and summarizes the idealized model of market capitalism and then shows how far U.S. capitalism in the 2010s was from that idea. Spoiler alert: it’s a pretty scary finding, and we seem to moving father away from the ideal over time.
Social inequality isn’t a political football to me. I don’t think this is a topic we can afford to lose between today’s crazy YouTube stunt and your favorite cuddly kitty Tweet. Inequality, I believe, has the power to blow every ship of state apart from the inside, just as unchecked bottlenecks of power inside a business can lay it low. High inequality is a systemic threat in all ecosystems in my view. Like climate change, we get the science of inequality wrong at our collective peril. There is a fuse burning on both front that started burning decades ago and if we don’t address it quickly, America, and perhaps the world, will enter exceedingly troubled waters.
I’m on a learning curve myself on these topics. I hope this never changes. I’m sure I’ve made mistakes here and I’m open to constructive feedback (no trolls please!). If you’re interested in the topic of inequality, read on, and share your own thoughts. I think Web-related and high tech tools and processes could become a crucial piece of undoing America’s inequality challenges but I also believe it’s going to take work by tens of millions of people and perhaps millions of companies to help steer the country back in the direction of greater equity, greater stability and greater long-term systemic growth. Please join me in realizing this outcome. I don’t bite (often!) and I’d like to know what stone you can add to this stone soup effort.
America, in my view, has an abundance of “political” heat and a dearth of socioeconomic light that’s pointing a clear way forward to a more successful American future (and perhaps for the world). Wikipedia has a U.S. inequality page, and I’d like to see an explosion of that type of content evolve here over time. My ebooks are intended to be a conversation starter, a basis for the emergence of such a community. Please add the light from your candle to mine so that pragmatic solutions to America’s rising inequality crisis can be identified and implemented as quickly as possible. I fear for the nation I love if we don’t.
Disclaimer
This site has no association with my current employer, IDC, or any of my previous employers. I’ve been a high tech market researcher and analyst for over two decades, but the content on this site doesn’t use specific pieces of research that I’ve created or had access to in my day job. The analysis and opinions expressed are solely mine.