“Hey! Look at me! I can build a website! Now, I will disrupt your business!”
Right? Wrong. It would be wonderful if life worked that way, but it normally doesn’t. “Disruption” is a buzzword among people developing websites because it contains the perfect combination of “Richard III” Shakespeare drama, Harvard business, and the saga of Robin Hood. There are a great deal of attempts to disrupt online; all claiming to offer some form of disruption for an industry. However, the industries that NEED to be disrupted seem to escaping without being touched.
Industries needing disruption, and this may be geared more towards the United States:
The Insurance Industry: Why?
The insurance industry is almost 100 years old. Take the biggest “too big to fail” insurance industry, started in Shanghai, China back in 1919. The founder originally offered insurance to shipping companies who lost cargo due to storms. C.V. Starr, founder, started growing the company based around ideals of family, continuing education, working within the politics of a country, and offering a service people can trust. As is the usual case with most successful businesses, the further the industry becomes removed from its founding ideals, the more greed takes over. Insurance companies like this, and any insurance company, makes it a point for underwriters to create policies that pay out as little as possible, or not at all.
In addition, the medical insurance industry in the United States has turned into an ethical disaster. Good people needing medical attention have to face the disgusting question before visiting a doctor or hospital, “Can I afford this?”. Lack of money is a leading cause of stress, and stress is a leading cause of many health problems. When good people begin dying, or damaging their health, because they fear the cost of medical treatment, there is a gross need for disruption of an industry. I do remember working for a “too big to fail” company, and interestingly enough, they had paid doctors on staff that I could visit, if needed. This was great, but when given a prescription for expensive medicine, the bills begin to add up.
If a person is making $50,000/year, and has a medical condition or need for dental work, they can trust that $6,000 – $20,000 a year will go to treatment and medication. Add to the fact the government already takes 50% of a paycheck for taxes, and it is easy to see why this industry, and the following, needs disruption as well. It is truly sad to live in a country where only the strong survive, literally.
Taxes and/or the tax code: Why?
It is written, “The will of the capitalist often leads to his/her economic suicide”, and taxes may just be an example of this. The United States was started by people who believed in disruption. They disrupted a monarchy that existed for hundreds of years, for one of many reasons being: Unfair taxes.
Fast forward to the 21st century, where a tax code has become its own form of government, and it is no wonder why business owners do their best to avoid paying unemployment and social security taxes; mainly through hiring employees and calling them “independent contractors”. Compared to 70-years ago, where the Federal branch of government was involved in only 5% of the nation’s economy, today’s government is more than 40% involved in the nation’s economy. When lawmakers and politicians are able to own and invest in businesses that they themselves set the tax code for, there is conflict of interest. It is painfully obvious, and others see it is “the way things ought to be”, while others find it grossly unfair. Disruption is needed to prove which one is right. Perhaps the scariest outcome will be if wealthy “disruptors” buy in to the same process currently killing the middle-class, in the belief that “it is just what a capitalist does”. The way the U.S. has mistakenly created this problem is by asking the US government to either create new taxes to protect their own needs. The reasons behind every “tax” come from somewhere to pay for something. The more we have asked the Federal government to intervene, the worse things have gotten.
Signs that something is “wrong” with the above are when business developers and owners do something very “capitalist”, and leave the very country they live in to escape overhead costs they see as “unjustified”. For example, when an entrepreneur from Chicago, Illinois moves to Shanghai, China because he sees the greatest opportunity outside of his own country (just like CV Starr did in 1919). Even more so, when a web development community decides to leave the United States in 2013, so he/she may get dental or medical treatment in Latin America, and while on this trip…hires a staff for his new website company. Is this “un-American”? Not at all…because the US is a capitalist nation, but it just so happens the insurance and taxes make it an unwise business decision to start a business in the very country they were born in.
Information Displayed by Website Marketing: Why?
This is a quickie…Just how can everything in the world be the first, the biggest, or the most, at anything. Years ago, I used to love watching David Horowitz, who had a show called “Fight Back!”, in which he tried products, looking to see if they did exactly what they claim to be doing. 99% of the time…they did not. The over-saturation of websites has led to a saturation of bullsh*t-marketing, and currently, there is no accountability for truth in a web marketplace. Personally, I trust websites as much as I trust imported discount jewelry sales on Canal St. in NYC, and to me, they possess the same integrity and should be stopped.
Education System (to make us smarter again): Why?
The democratization of information that exists today has had a negative effect on society. The human brain is not able to chemically process “consequence of action” until age 25. However, there is a society of youth today who are learning things long before they can actually process what it means. If I were to say to a 14-yr old, “You should be careful about what you say to people on social media”, his/her initial response may be, “Hey! What about my rights of free speech!?!”.
In essence, the child would have a point, but what he/she does not understand is that “just because you say something or do a Google search to learn something”, does not dictate society will find you intelligent or give you what you want. In fact, they may begin to view you as just another “subway preacher”. Teachers in the US today deal with students, who are in fact afraid to learn because information is so readily available to them. One of the most rewarding things in life is discovering something you never knew before, and using that information to create something better. Today’s education system is fighting an uphill battle against a society of children, and parents, who behave shamelessly with the belief that all they have to do to get what they want or appear to have an illusion of knowledge, is crowdsource help on social media or do a Google search. I do in fact believe that certain information should be available to those who can handle it, which creates a problem: The Internet is mob rule, and in a mob rule society, no one is allowed to play God.
What does that mean? Are we hopeless? No. It means this form of disruption will not come from a website. It must come from inside the home, and what parents allow their kids to learn and when. I have intelligent nieces and nephews, and I know for a fact this is because of my intelligent brothers and sister who offer a strong family support system. This form of disruption must involve “no media”. One of the best web developers I know, in fact comes from a strong family, and never watches television. Go figure: The less he pays attention to people’s random meanderings, the better he does in life.
Foot note: One thing parents have to do is let teachers teach again. Sending them off to school is pointless, if a parent is seen as the main authority figure. A child will manipulate any situation for his/her own comfort zone, if the child recognizes a weakness in the united front that should exist between parents and teachers. I firmly believe children should be given tools to grow as functional members of society, who know how to take care of themselves as adults. This is not achieved through the process of giving a child everything they ask for, or say they want. The most rewarding experience for anyone is to work towards a goal and achieve it. A child given anything they want will never experience what this feels like, and over the course of his/her lifetime, will stand less of a chance of becoming successful. (success as in…confident in their own achievements)
This photo below applies to education, and any business owner. In terms of “making things better”, we can only do what we know, until we know better.
