This second second superpower, this transboundary timeless nationspace society of the blogosphere, it is not a nation. It is a colony. A colony currently yoked by the colonial power.

We've been here before.

Here's the situation: Too many skilled people are unemployed or under-employed, and among them some exceptionally talented people. Hard-earned skills, brilliant out-of-the-box innovators, awesome expert talents in interaction, design, engineering, aesthetics, language, process ...

The mind reels at what these people could do ... if put to use.

And I'm not the first to notice -- it was succinctly put in a David Isenberg SMART letter and since in many elsewheres -- so it's not just me, way out here on the perimeter stone alone. It's everywhere. And everywhere marginal actors carry skeleton crews through the motions of empire, just as you'd expect late in colonial times, while everywhere sits hard-core talent getting googlejuiced just to pass the day.

Only, back up a minute. We've been here before ...

1750 Philadelphia. Prosperous, boom-time -- dot-com boom-time. Ring any bells? The first-superpower, under ailing colonial rule, yet hay-day time, amazing things, invention, bounty, smiling happy people. The Empire was a decrepid whore under layers of greasepaint, flexing brawn where her wiles failed to woo, aching under unemployment, social decay, you know the score. Ben Franklin was asked by the House to explain why the young colonies were immune to global economic depression. Remember what he said?

"Free trade and free markets have proven their ability to lift whole societies out of poverty"

And do we remember how? Sure we do. We also know the wrath of the Bank of England over this Colonial Script, and how that was a domino direct in the Rube-Goldberg chain of events leading to the famous Tea Party.

We saw it again, 200 years later. It was called The New Deal.

You don't need links, you know all about it. If you don't, you know
where to find it.

So, now, here, right here and right now. What's stopping us?

Couldn't the colonized second second superpower issue a colonial script? We yak about smart government and internet voting; could we cobble a simple script-broker? It works like this: You work for someone for an hour, they get docked one people-hour, you gain one in credit. That's it. Just like PayPal, but more Pal than Pay.

I'm a flower-power so-cred information hippie who would dare to trust free market economies -- within reason, after all, since I am Canadian -- the only consession I'd ask is making script-balances transparent. You have to see the colour of their script. If I know you have millions in credit, working for you is likely for the common good in nation-building this second second superpower. If you have huge debt, I'm a-gonna wonder a bit.

Nothing happens in a vacuum; there need to be transitions and compromises. That's how nation building works. Some risks may become the Foundation of Tomorrow's World, and some become notorious Hooligans. History being written by victors and all. We'd need scaffolding and bootstrapping where those with influence in Colonial Government might do little sly currency rate exchanges to fill the gaps, and those more blessed second second superpower leaders might flex some influentials to find the Ben Franklin to 'sign' these first few credits. Risks and daring --

But if it worked! Just imagine ...