The Bottom Up Economy

Culture

from the bottom's-up dept

When I was an undergraduate, I spent a lot of time studying negotiations and bargaining situations – often in situations where there was little to no trust between the parties. The end results of such negotiations always turned out to be much better when they opened up and weren’t done in a “us vs. them” or top down manner. However, it was very difficult to get over the hurdle of the “we’re telling you how it is!” thought process to the “let’s lay everything out on the table” process. Such a lesson doesn’t apply only to direct bargaining situations, but almost any type of transaction between multiple parties. The more open the process is, the more likely everyone can come to a resolution that makes people happy. This is starting to show up in many aspects of our lives, and even the folks over at Fortune have noticed the trend in our society to move to a “bottom up” world where participation and openness are expected and encouraged – rather than the top down method of someone making a final decision on how things will work. Now, whether it’s the media we consume, the software we use, the products we buy, and (apparently) the candidates we elect, people are recognizing the power of the bottom up approach.