Quality of life
NEMs is an engine for increased economic activity. Much of
that activity has a very human flavour.
Users in control
NEMs users aren’t at the mercy of organisations. They have instant overview of thousands of market sectors and can view the data localised around their home. NEMs can tell them which sectors they could most profitably work in if they felt inclined to so. It may well be able to provide career developing investment if they’re interested in providing what the market needs. As they trade through NEMs they can build a valuable record of reliability.
It’s sometimes called flexi-curity. Anyone selling regularly in National E-Markets would gain a form of security; not from allegiance to one organisation but by demonstrating reliability and experience across multiple activities. This could be ingrained in national character if, for instance, schools were to help students into the first stages of NEMs selling. This might involve ringfenced markets where youngsters undertake house and garden tasks, errand running or petcare for vetted local households.
Of course there needs to be help for the weakest, or those who have problems with computers. NEMs can make markets for accredited peer supporters uniquely cost effective. Help comes not from 9-5 workers despatched by the state. Individuals can have a personal budget, distributed through NEMs, with which they, or a proxy acting on their behalf, can purchase assistance or training on their terms.
Expanded opportunities
The widened horizon for NEMs users isn’t confined to how they earn a living. Innovative markets such as home cinema clubs might be launched. Imagine you want to go out to a movie tonight. The local multiplex may choose to sell seats in NEMs, but so may any householder with a high-end TV and the latest DVD release.
As ever, the householder can specify who they’d be willing to let into their home and how much they’d charge, perhaps using yield management tools to make the evening as profitable as possible. As part of its mandate, NEMs may have to tithe a fee to the movie’s producers within each seat sold. For the movie goer, one further click would get the most competitively priced neighbourhood taxi to their door with drop off in time for film’s start.
Social opportunities increase as resources can be marshalled so precisely. Places in kid’s soccer leagues run be qualified coaches who can hire pitches, kit and minibuses for away games can be offered on a no-risk basis. Social networks for Seniors, community campaigns and local events; all could be much more easily organised through NEMs.
Waves of change
Some will find this shift to a more domestic economy unsettling. It could bring new competitors and erode old practices. Diehard nine-to-fivers may feel vulnerable. But NEMs would be just one more force creating a less predictable world. Perhaps it is better to be buffeted by your neighbours’ ingenuity than by globalisation?
