Creative Destruction & Creative Inertia

Dear all,

The topic of interest that caught my recent easily-distractable attention has been that of "Creative Destruction". As I was reading about the justification behind illegalizing insider trading, I stumbled upon the term Creative Destruction.

This term was coined in 1942 by economist Joseph Schumpeter. A "conservative", free-market economist. He argued that the long-term growth of the economy is fueled by the continuous destruction of inefficient industries and business practices by newer, more innovative ones. It is cycle of continuous replacement that fuels economic advancement.

This continuous innovation in business practice demands continuous learning by employees as well. However, many people seem to think that they can use the same skills that they learned in their 20s for the rest of their life. And when employers tell them to keep their skills up to date, they form unions.

On a different note, one may refer to an analogous term called "Creative Inertia" citing the TV show Yes Minister. Creative Inertia refers to certain delay tactics that a bureacracy uses to stop action and progress. In the context of Yes Minister, the bureacracy is the British Civil Service. The technique comes in five stages and is in response to a new proposition by the elected minister:
1. Your administration is very new and it is too early to make any changes
2. The idea is certainly excellent, but are you sure that the proposal is the right way to make the change
3. Minister, this is not the right time for such proposal.
4. The proposal has ran into technical, political, and legal problems. Legal ones are the incomprehensible ones.
5. By this stage the technique should have worked for three years, and the response would be "Minister, there is a general election coming up very soon, are you sure you can get this policy through".


Interestingly enough, later the TV series, the episode "a Victory for Democracy" describes a similar technique for delaying any foreign aid that the Prime Minister intends to give. This is nomenclatured as the "Four Stage Strategy". When a foreign government asks for help and the PM desires the comply, the Foreign Office would say:
1. The situation is peaceful and there is nothing we should do.
2. There is something happening, but we should do nothing about it.
3. Maybe there is something we should do, but there's nothing we CAN do.
4. Maybe there was something we should've done, but ..it's too late now.


I find these extremely hilarious both for their wit and in its inherent element of truth.