"To be merely useless, indeed, is perhaps the highest eulogy that can ever justly be bestowed on a regulated company" Adam Smith
Whenever people discuss Uber, the sharing economy comes up. Whenever the method or object of sharing changes, a big business opportunity is created. That's been true for at least 40,000 years. What intrigues me is that Uber is taking over the government controlled taxi market. The government's immediate response in several cases has been to enforce the existing law. However, it may be that what the government is doing is trying to maintain its usefulness. If more companies "disrupt" government regulated industries, eventually we start to question the usefulness or need for government. Lest you think I am completely crazy, there may be some data (on government and not my mental state).
An important function of government is what and how it communicates to the citizenry and what is prohibited communication. So if the role of government is to be challenged or changed it may well take place in the communications arena (guns being expensive, dangerous and to some extent outdated). Now for some possible data.
Y Combinator is funding a non-profit company in Argentina, DemocracyOS, that offers software for politicians to poll their constituents and has been used there to start a new political party. One of the first users is a serving government official in San Francisco. He is polling constituents on what they think about possible new legislation.
When did government ever put the populous view ahead of re-electing standing politicos and serving private interests. However, perhaps San Francisco is the first case where government is trying to demonstrate usefulness by setting the populous agenda through the Internet, before the people get organized, set the agenda on the Internet and start passing laws without involving the government. The people passing laws without government involvement, that would be truly disruptive. If there were ever politicians who could see such a trend coming it would be politicians in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. (An historical note--when the feudal manor system broke down in medieval Europe, the kings created "relationships" directly with the peasant citizenry. Such an approach eventually failed to preserve the monarchies. Similarities to government polling the citizens are perhaps obvious.)
Of course, if the government would just be efficient and commit to serving the needs of 21st and not 19th century citizens, I would hold off on applying to Y Combinator for funding for the Hacker Militia Corporation.
Great name but I am going to forego being the first militia applicant to Y Combinator 😎. For an old post making fun of my name, checkout "The Hacker Universal Theory of Management"--HUTM.