Cities are different from companies in a fundamental way: if you don’t show up to a city three days in a row without calling in a reason, the city will not fire you. Sure, you have to pay your taxes and follow the ordinances, but cities typically don’t tell you what to do and pretty much never how to do it (unless it’s through hopefully quirky and difficult to understand signs on poles).
So why would anyone ever spend time grouped with a company? Well, companies consistently pay you and cities don’t usually have healthcare plans. But otherwise, cities have lots of places where you can talk to people (even outside of 9-5) and plenty of bad coffee available for cheap. So how could one build an infrastructural grouping that provides consistent money and healthcare?
This is a hard question, mostly because companies exist. If capitalism did not involve organizations in their corporate sense, it would be a completely different animal, and possibly more infrastructural in nature than controlling. But beyond the economic theology, the question: what are the characteristics of a non-geographically delineated grouping that enables good financial outcomes for its members? A way to do effort and be consistently compensated. A way to do that effort whenever and however you want. A way for the person or people consuming the outcomes of that effort to transfer money to the effort & outcome creator (compensation). A way to create confidence that effort will result in outcomes and outcomes will result in sufficient compensation. Uber goes part of the way, but screws up on the “however you want” and the “sufficient”. The ride hailing vampire also misses on the healthcare part. Etsy is a bit closer, but again, healthcare and sufficiency. What we need is really a co-op-like combination of Amazon and Uber: a marketplace where many people are buying and many people are selling (both products and services). Some of the products and services might be built & delivered in teams, resulting in reasonable group-divided compensation, but these groupings would not be companies, they would be more like dinner parties – you have to be polite, someone is hosting, you should bring a little something in addition to your witty conversation, and everyone gets the same food. Here’s the catch: building this would have the same long-term compensation expectations that come with public service. You’re not going to be a master of the universe with a Bezosian spaceship company and ten thousand year clock to your family name (if you built it properly). More like the first mayor and founding citizens of a very important city.
Roman Ryan 