We live in TOWNS (mostly visible), full of ORGs (some visible, some not). Since the web has spring up, though, more and more (virtual) visibility is possible.

​

We LIVE on this rocky Earth, thanks to all the greenery. We Lord it over all the other animals and life-forms. 

​

We WORK for our survival, or others work on our behalf. Our work takes a million different forms or occupations, in which we must be linked to certain essential others (colleagues, suppliers, customers, etc.) while the rest of humanity has no clue what we do. 

​

Fortunately all this work and collaboration produces stuff & services that other people feel they need and buy. Our distant ancestors  foraged, hunted, or farmed. They got animals to "help" with the heavy work. Trading was invented and spread greatly, eventually with the help of ORGs. Cities arose.  This took many centuries. Meanwhile warfare (armed conflict) is never far away for too long.

​

Better ORGanization contributed to all this "economic growth" (including agricultural and industrial revolutions starting in the early 19th century) - and to the warfare and colonizing in the background. 

​

The first half of the 20th century saw warfare with unimaginably huge death tolls. Military organiz-ations have never operated on such vast scale. Social, governmental, and industrial organizations were then ramped up to unprecedented levels to rebuilt from the damage. 

Then the second half of  the century saw the greatest economic prosperity ever (in the USA). This was not a peaceful time (Korean War, VietNam War - but the killing was on another continent); and the Cold War with USSR led to persecution of critics.

​

President Eisenhower warned about the danger of "the military-industrial complex" but that close inter-dependence and boom happened anyhow. Meanwhile the consumer economy roared ahead  in a basically free-market model, with some modest attempts at regulation for consumer safety (medical, physical, fiscal). This is "free market" capitalism. 

 

Communist China now practices state capitalism. 

Various European countries practice social safety-net capitalism, having privatized many ORGs that were formerly state utilities (phone, rail, water, airlines, etc.).

​

The business firm is not only the most common form of ORG but also is commonly used as the standard of "good ORG management". Let's be careful!  

​

​

 

 

​

​