“Meet the women shaping the future of the drone business” (Fortune) turns out to be the American economy in microcosm. Person 1 designs widgets. Person 2 operates them. Person 3 uses connections from former government job to lobby regarding the legality and regulation of what Persons 1 and 2 are doing. Person 4 scolds Persons 1-3 for thoughtcrime (sexism in this case).
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Wow, is Social Justice Warrior/professional scold now a paid position? Is it like Jesse Jackson where the people you scold pay you to go away?
Regarding Person 3, the US is entering the Permit Raj phase of socialism. It’s not illegal per se to start a business but you need multiple permits and or waivers for basically anything that you might want to do because the government has vague (or specific) statutes covering every conceivable activity, so they can get you for multiple felonies every time you breath without their permission (breathing – illegal discharge of gas with global warming potential). And it’s impossible for an ordinary person to get said permits without paying a fixer with connections inside the bureaucracy to grease the wheels and maybe even the fixer can’t help you, or else it may take her years (on retainer) to do so and you will need to hire all sorts of consultants who will assess the environmental impact of your product on birds, the atmosphere, economic inequality, etc.
Imagine that the Wright Brothers had needed government permission to fly their plane. Langley, being well connected, would have gotten his permit (and in fact he even got government funding – today he would had a few more zeroes on his grant). The Wright Brothers would still be waiting for their permit and we would be taking the steam train to Washington (India retired their last steam locomotive in 1993).