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Business opportunity. If I were 20 or 30 years younger I would look to start a business setting up a platform for travelers. Instead of letting the hotels and airlines etc. collude to keep prices high, a travel site could be owned and operated by travelers. By using social media and the collective buying power of millions of people the platform could negotiate prices for large blocks of hotel rooms and possibly airline and other transportation tickets. It could possibly be set up as a mutual organization like Vanguard or some insurance companies that keep pricess low and members benefit and actually own the company. An individual or small group of people have very little bargaining power when it comes to negotiating a price. However with a large membership your leverage increases. As more people join and use the platform the greater the pressure on hotels etc. to compete on price. It might be nominal at first but over time could make a significant difference in what a frequent traveler has to pay. This would not be the same as for profit travel booking sites that do have clout in purchasing but are also seeking to maximize their profit so they aren’t really looking to provide the end user with low prices but just trying to gain as many customers as possible. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/vegas-hotels-hit-lawsuit-claiming-collusion-algorithm-artificially-inflate-hotel-prices
That is an excellent idea Chartsmaster. The same idea could be applied to a whole host of business ventures. At a time like this in our history we humans need alternatives to organizations who have been corrupted or taken over by forces unknown to us. Its been done before by the way. In banking, they are called Credit Unions. Those were a means for large groups of customers who were unhappy with the major banks to still get a foothold in the financial sphere and be served fairly. Depending on your age you may recall a time in our distant past when the public was widely disenchanted with our traditional banks. Credit Unions were the answer. You were a shareholder. They had an obligation to support their member customers rather than just big business and government interests.
In the field of farming we also have the example of Co-Ops which were groups that pooled the resources of farmers by buying and distributing their production at fair prices. The farm co-ops naturally led to the formation of supermarket cooperatives which were also union led and run for their members. In the early days you could not even shop there unless you paid a membership fee.
There was an entire movement of the people (unions) into businesses that were owned and run by their members and that included real estate coops and land buying groups. Some saw a lot of success in the long run although many got bogged down in the politics of socialism while others were taken over by elected boards with interests that conflicted with the original idealisms.
That movement now has a good reason to come back to life though. Especially as co-ops have the power to set their own internal rules and regulations. They would obviously be less apt to take actions detrmental to their members. This feature would set them apart from typical corporate or government models. Schooling is obviously an area I would imagine would find strong interest. Once you break away from government funding you can also cut a lot of the regulatory ties. This is key. Its the money source that gets to direct your operation. If that money comes from Gov’t then you play by their rules.
People need to learn this lesson again. They seem to have forgotten independance is feedom.