Economies of Scale, Diseconomies of Scope

This is an interesting blog post from Arnold King - - My Thoughts on Technology and Government.  Key points in the blog that engineers should consider:

• The idea that the industrial revolution was about centralization and the information revolution is a shift to decentralization.  This has broad and deep implications for engineering.  Decentralization is shaping up to be the word of the century.  It will be interesting to see where (community energy and wastewater systems with a focus on renewable and reuse) and why (much higher energy costs and much cheaper information systems disrupt the old economies of scale) we end up in the context of a global decentralization movement.
• Urbanization will increase the demand for (better) government.  With higher density living - - water, sewage, and transportation planning become a big deal because of the additional externalises that are created.  We need to keep an eye on two continuing trends; the centralization of people and government combined with the decentralization of technology and information.  How does the notion of increasing system and information decentralization square with the world looking more like New York City?
• In the information age, a governments advantage is scale, but its disadvantage is scope.  Governments are trying to do too many things, and as a result they are doing them poorly.  What will be interesting is a new world where scale is under budget and financial attack and people still insist and expect the same scope and services. The future is not an either or.  It appears to be a developed world of neither - - scale nor scope.  This has broad ramifications for engineering.