But remember this the next time you see Al Gore shedding crocodile tears about how urban sprawl is taking valuable real estate from small farmers. Because the very next day, Gore will be introducing a clean water initiative aimed at farm run-off or a new ban on pesticides. When these increased costs of doing business hit struggling small farmers, those farmers are history. The big corporate farms will endure, but for the small fry it's goodbye amber waves of grain, hello Ranchette Estates. Every time the environmental bar is raised in an industry, the smaller operators get squeezed out.
Big outfits are resilient enough to even turn a profit from new technological demands.
Every environmental doodad that Detroit is required to slap on your truck, for example, is another mark-up opportunity. And, of course, the barriers to entry for new competitors are increasing at the same time. Corporate America spends most of its energy fighting for market share and avoids battles over trendy social causes. Business adapts to new rules much more than it fights them. Actually, they operate more like persecutors.