How online marketplaces can help local economies, not hurt them:

 Local enonomies are not harmed by online marketplaces. Local economies are harmed by their inability to adapt.

Local economies (which are made of hundreds of small businesses) have to adapt to changes in the general marketplace. Those who cannot adapt are not being responsible business owners, or are perhaps seeing a natural end to their tenure as a business. One can only continue to develop new skills for so long. Old age, refusal to learn new skills or learn new ways of seeing the world are very real impediments to business success.It is generally not the responsibility of one business to help another. Most of the time it is not possible. Businesses have enough to do to help themselves continue to operate.

You are suggesting some sort of connection between online and local that just doesn’t exist. Online marketplaces are not a singular entity that can “do” something. An online marketplace is a collective of hundreds or thousands or millions of smaller entities who have their own volition. The online marketplace is the net result of activity, not an entity in itself. An online marketplace cannot do anything. It is the result of doing.

The same is true of a local economy. A local economy is the result of action of smaller businesses. It is those small businesses, both locally and online, that have to take responsibility for their position and come up with solutions. If they are not able to come up with solutions then they have to make a decision as to how to proceed. But what you are suggesting in terms of an interaction between marketplaces is just is not even possible. It’s an illusion that there is such a thing as a unified marketplace that can help another unified marketplace. All of us in business are responsible for ourselves.


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