What This City Needs by Alex Cosper The Online Economy The answer to a lot of problems of the past has been the internet. It has been the consumer's best friend in terms of finding the best deals and widest selection of choices. Last century a problem that consumers had not even learned about yet was how they were getting ripped off from high CD prices. But the internet solved the problem by making music free. The internet also provided new ways for labels and artists to make money. The internet has gotten us to places on time thanks to online maps. All the time and gas wasted from driving around searching for items is practically in the past when you consider that it's now much faster to find anything online. The internet has also provided many ways for people to earn money online. If cities encouraged more online businesses within their communities, it could help local economies. Organic food trucks, virtual offices and pop up shops are modern types of businesses that are relatively low cost and do not require a set location. The more cities embrace online businesses, the more they are building economic strength for the future. The internet sets people free from the need to drive to work since so much work can now be done on a computer from anywhere that has an internet connection. Where Organic and Internet Intersect Ideally organic food trucks, which post deliver schedules online, will be clean energy vehicles to help promote the most important aspect of the online economy: that it helps society move away from the oil economy. The more we do things digitially instead of physically, the more we are helping the environment. The organic revolution is also connected with the online revolution since both are subsets of the consumer revolution. It's amazing to look at cities who struggle economically mostly because they are stuck in the new world. They either haven't figured out how to utilize the internet or their business model is polluted with old world thinking. The vision needs to be pointed at eco-friendly, green and organic because that's where you find purity, which is where the reset button needs to take society after a bumpy 20th cenutry ride through pollution and illusions. The consumer revolution, that I call the "nu world," is now what defines pop culture, which is now shaped by authentic products that gain more authority over hyped inferior products in the online search world. Empty buildings should be turned into centers for online businesses or warehouses for the organic revolution, which has now makes much more money than the music biz. Organic food has grown into a very popular niche, thanks partly to the internet. Next Chapter: What This City Needs Index to Mass Mania in Slow Motion