Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Capitalists and Capitalism

One of the things that makes modern capitalism so different from previous types is theexistence of the Internet Entrepreneur. Rather than trying to control machinery, that vital partthat makes the workers more productive, the internet entrepreneur is attempting to control human capital, both much more difficult and much easier. More difficult because your bright marketers and programmers tend to bugger off if you kick them, not something that used to happen with a steam engine. Easier, because you don’t actually have to have money to bring them together. There are any number of companies that have been started with nothing but sweat equity and whatever computers the staff themselves already own. Real money doesn’t come into it until 6 months down the line. So the job or career of an internet entrepreneur can be both easier and harder than that of his top hatted forebears.