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The system has changed. The capitalism we once knew as predatory and self-indulgent has transcended in certain pockets of society into something new. It is not a utopia by a long shot, but perhaps it is something better…the New Capitalism.
We see it when we go to a library, or Starbucks. The endless sea of laptops connected to the Internet, the concept is so revolutionary that we dismiss it as normal. It is not. Free Wireless Internet is as alien and Science Fiction as having a free to use phone at every table in a coffee shop during the 1980’s. This is a serious game changing service that spawned from the very system that supposedly plans on making a product out of everything.
What it interesting, is that he Free Wireless movement has manifested in different stages. The most clear declaration of Wireless Internet access as something worth examining, was in San Francisco shortly after Mayor Newsom made his historic statement. The decision to turn Union Square into a wi-fi zone was not something entirely new, but it was groundbreaking and historic in its publicity, rhetoric, and over-arching vision.
Starbucks tinkered with the idea of wireless Internet for years. There were monthly plan T-mobile contracts that evolved into the concept of having a registered Starbucks card to enable free wifi for a temporary amount of time. Then finally Starbucks switched entirely into a completely free Wi-Fi access hot spot that only required the clicking of a terms of agreement page. Many argue that this was an evolution of market competition and Starbucks was responding to pressure from other coffee shops that provided free wi-fi. But that argument does not make sense when we take into account the huge market share of the company.
If Starbucks wanted to provide Wireless Internet and charge for it, they could have. All they would have needed to do, was to cut prices. By cutting prices, they could have used an old capitalistic technique of drawing in customers from the competition. But they didn’t do this, and the reason why I think they chose he route that they did was the concept of Starbucks trying to create a comfortable friendly place for people to go to, that wasn’t the office or home.
This type of logic transcends simple concepts of return on investment or market share. This is a new form of capitalism that has roots in an ancient and antiquated form of business…the stake holder. Unlike a stock holder, the stake holder is the community that directly benefits from the existence and operation of a business. And today’s internet using society, is the greater community of stake holders, that benefit from companies that provide Wi-Fi and research and develop advancements in such technology.
These advancements such as free Wi-Fi Hotspots, that benefit the stakeholders are like succulent fruit that sprout from the brambles of Capitalism. It is almost as if, we are experiencing an emergent higher form of socio-economic interaction between business and consumer, as a result of paying into the existing cost-benefit system.
The question remains, if free wireless internet is one of the true benefits of this New Capitalism, what is next? If this system is allowed to mature and develop, what future fruits await this technology hunger culture, that we call Western Civilization?
-Tyler