Not surprisingly it's international Steve Jobs day. Copious amounts of words have been written and continue to be written about the Man and his Legacy. The man lived the American Dream to the Max.

At the same time we have the unnerving reality of the Occupy Wall St protests.

This then is a day that highlights both the scale of the American Dream and the depths of the American Reality.

Those of you who are widely read will understand that the background to much of the innovative thinking that has brought America to this social paradox can of course be found in the work of Ayn Rand. Specifically a book with the title Atlas Shrugged. A highly regarded modern American literary classic.

i have been working my way through this opus over the past months (or is that lifetimes?) trying to better understand its appeal, its premise and its influence on post modern American Thinking.

Although in the main poorly written (i have read better pulp fiction) and the plot line at best naive (The Corporate CEO as hero and messiah is central to the book's over riding premise) this 1950's distopia has proven very influential with the American right. For example the former head of the US Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan was a well known disciple.

Needless to say i struggle to understand its appeal to thinking men and women. For example i find Rand's John Galt an intellectual and moral lightweight when compared to say Jeff Tracy of Thunderbirds fame.

Still i digress.

To date i have read only two well framed posts that attempt to bring these two pieces of the paradoxical puzzle that is Post GFC America.

The first, not surprisingly, is from the Economist with their Death of Steve Jobs and America's Decline. The other, somewhat surprisingly, is from Alexander Muse of Shopsavvy fame with his Occupy Wall St Protesting Outcomes.

The Economist piece can be succinctly encapsulated by the phrase printed on the packaging of every iPhone. “Designed by Apple in California, Assembled in China.”

Alexander's piece is best understood as position statement that declares the past, present and future of America as a place where ‘equality of opportunity’ is more important than ‘equality of outcome’.

I would suggest that the harsh reality of the old American system was America only worked when everyone worked. The problem with the new American Economy is of course these new technologies have created an economy in which not everyone has to work for the economy to function. The machines and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the world (e.g. China) are doing the heavy lifting in the economy.

This means that, thanks largely to its innovation and technology, the American Economy is transitioning from an industrial economy into a creative leisure economy.

The core problem of course being what do you do with all these people whose work has been replaced by technology and or cheap overseas labour

Trying to fit this new paradigm into the old "America Works when Everybody Works" paradigm means there will be inevitably social disruption. And this will continue until we stop for a moment and just think why we have invested, and continue to invest, so much creative and scientific energy into all this new technological innovation. For surely if it isn't to improve the lives and well being of our families and our fellow man why are we doing it?

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” – Steve Jobs quoted in The Wall Street Journal (Summer 1993).

You see I suspect, indeed I know from experience, that innovators love to create endlessly. They don't do it for the money. They do it because of the thrill of discovering the new. The key to a prosperous future for Americans, and the rest of the world, is to create a new type of economy that unleashes the innovators to do what they do best and yes, be rewarded. But also one that removes the barriers to entry that stop so many young and not so young energetic minds achieving the American Dream. Not only in America but around the world.

Alexander is right this shouldn't be a question of "I want my bit!". It is a question of "I want my chance!". The key is to create a new economic model that allows that to happen. Because clearly the current one isn't working too well at the moment anywhere...

Part 2