The age of the digital bazaar
Mom and pop stores still exist, just online
There is something endearing about the idea of a bustling market scene: stores, stalls, and horse-drawn carts filled with produce being sold alongside the assorted wears of the locals. Aside from the lively chatter and unsupervised kids running around and stealing apples, I find this scene so fascinating because it is the most atomic version of a free market; we might be going back to something approaching this sooner than you think.
There is a lot of discourse nowadays about the evil of large corporations, and while I agree with this indictment in part, the infrastructure that we now have access to because of the Amazons and TikToks of the world creates the possibility for everyone to be their own business again. The monopolization of many markets because of the advent of the internet era has left many people working jobs that feel meaningless. I concede that this may sound naively optimistic, but there is more opportunity now than there has ever been to regain control over your financial situation rather than yielding to your employer. The great resignation is proof that this sentiment is catching on.
The internet has done something that has never been seen in the history of the world: torn down all borders, allowing everyone on earth access to everyone else. One of the negatives of this tool is that, since its creation, in-person communities — especially in the west — haven’t been as tight-knit as they once were: everyone can find their ideal tribe on the internet. While there is rightful concern about the degradation of physical communities, from a “convenience” perspective, we’re living in the golden age. Long gone are the days that you must drag your wears to the town bazaar and shout over the clamoring of merchants; If you can do something of value, the people that might pay you money for it are a tap away.
“Local community” hasn’t disappeared, it’s just shifted to a new medium governed by ones and zeroes. Similar to your neighborhood plumber, digital entrepreneurs are selling their knowledge to small, niche communities; and you likely have expertise that someone would find helpful too. I don’t think this path is going to be seen as an “option” for much longer. In the interest of efficiency, large companies are incentivized to squeeze you for all you’ve got, and while this may seem “unfair”, the corollary is that the same tools that they use to create income at a global scale are available to you and me, and practically for free. I encourage you to take the knowledge that you have and consider putting it out there for people to see; Financial freedom is in closer grasp than many perceive it to be.