(Update on 03/14/00. You are at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, USA).
Lester Thurow in his book "The Future of Capitalism," NY: William Morrow and Co., Inc., 1996, p.67, notes: "Capitalism is a process of creative destruction whereby dynamic new small companies are continually replacing old large ones that have not been able to adjust to new conditions." (This sounds a bit like Schumpeter, who is gaining more attention these days).
This idea may be important as we ponder what the Freedom to Farm Bill means to agriculture, and to the economy more generally, and how the bill is to be revised in the next couple of years. The bill certainly frees farms to be innovative, and to adjust. It also separates the egoistic (i.e., we turn the farmers/ranchers over to the market) from the empathic tendencies to help farmers and ranchers. Maybe we have opened the doors to "creative destruction" wherein smaller, flexible, dynamic farms will now be able to find niches. Maybe the large ones will not be able to adjust to the new conditions. Maybe the egoistic motivation will win out and we will all be better off.
It also seems that maybe Thurow's idea applies to the academy. Are we at UNL one of the "...dynamic new small..." universities that will be at least a partial if not complete replacement for an older, larger one? Will we be able to adjust to the reality of a rapidly changing world, e.g., one that uses new information technologies? To one in which the academic community can now almost as easily involve linkages with colleagues thousands of miles away as across the hall? To one in which students must be continually retooling, in this rapid paced world, so that students never totally graduate, i.e., we experience the need for continuing, life-long learning? To one in which the idea of scholarship is broadening to include such domains as the scholarship of academic citizenship and the scholarship of integration? Will empathy and others-interest, or egoistic self-interest, dictate the outcome?
Intriguing questions, all. A metaeconomics look at the question suggests the need to practice empathy as we ponder the answers. Empathy toward our colleagues/administration. Empathy for our students and their parents. Empathy for our agricultural clientele and the (food and fiber) consumers they serve. Creative destruction certainly calls for more empathy in making our choices as we jointly pursue both egoistic (profit oriented) and empathic solutions to complex problems.