Indeed, I believe it is wrong to assume, as so many business gurus are prophesying, that the most important feature of capitalist structures in the 21st Century will be small, flexible, temporary electronic-cottage firms of one or two people. There will be many such small firms in the future, I am sure, but the monopolistic logic of capitalism is obviously operating now, and will continue to dominate, so that any successful small firm will either be gobbled up by larger ones or itself gobble up larger ones. Hence the dominant feature of the future in this regard, in Hawaii and everywhere else, is towards a world in the 21st Century controlled by a small number of gigantic, diversified, global corporations. Thus, strong, unified, if flexible and networked, unions will still be needed to advance the interests of ordinary people in such a globalized political-economy. Here, the immediate future looks exceedingly grim as governments everywhere continue irresponsibly to self-destruct in the face of exponentially rising needs for communal infrastructure and services.
Privatization seems to be an unstoppable global trend found everywhere.
Well, over the years I have concluded that many ideas and fads are also like the flu. As the world eagerly dismantles governments in the name of free market efficiency, we are captured by a sick ideology as weird, powerful, untried and wrong as the Marxist ideology that Lenin brought to Russia in 1917, infecting that country, and spreading the Red disease worldwide until suddenly, and for no apparent reason, it all died out, everywhere, in 1989 and 90. The Red Plague abruptly and peacefully came to an end. The Evil Empire, with all its evil emperors everywhere, limply sank to its knees and melted away. But only to give way to the Blue Plague, a new global disease of even more frightening proportions.