After a seductive tease in the introduction, the book spends the next 300 pages or so rehashing in a rather disjointed fashion a history of capitalism, with a little bit of social psychology and technology trends sprinkled in for good measure. This in and of itself is interesting reading, if the book was titled "A Primer on Capitalism." It is only in the last 50-75 pages that the authors get to the point. In all fairness: Yes I agree, people are burned out (I know I am), yes things DEFINITELY need to change, and the rich are getting richer, I'm all over that idea. However, the relationship economy has already been tried and failed. Ultimately, and especially lately, products with any "value-added" premium built into their prices, quickly become commodities, which means that people are not willing to PAY for that premium service. It is unlikely, in this case, that such a commoditized service, would not support the profit margins required for sustainability. Witness the demise of the stockbroker. Take another example: 9/11 aside, the major airlines simply have not been competitive with the discount carriers. Their bloated cost structure has come home to roost, as they tried to support "markets of one." I believe it is an accident of their size that they remain in business for the time being. The most disingenuous part of the book though is really the last 50-75 pages. It is pure speculation and points to no specific examples of research currently under development that even hints at these advances taking hold. IBM tried and failed to sell Internetworked refrigerators. Consumers basically said, I can figure when my milk has expired thank you. I don't need to pay someone to tell me to schedule a servicing of my HVAC, it's called a calender and a pen. I cannot tell you how badly I wanted to really believe that this was a new paradigm in the making. The time is ripe for a new way of thinking but this is not it. It seems that after all of that writing, the authors could only come up with a glorified "concierge" service as the answer to all of our troubles. My sense is that the answer lies in the development of a different kind of leadership among the executive class, and the creation and enforcement of rigorous international standards for business and human rights. The reality of capitalism is that it rewards self-interested behavior. Yet we want a society where everyone can share more of the pie. These ideas are currently incongruous. Until that incongruity is reconciled we a going to continue to repeat the mistakes of the past.
