Simpler alternatives fail precisely because they cannot compete with the economic power of hierarchal structures—even accounting for energy descent and other factors that undercut hierarchies. From food production to manufacturing and knowledge industries, even oppressive and poorly-functioning hierarchies will out-perform isolated self-sufficiency.

Jeff Vail insists, this is a crucially important point which he promises to develop in two subsequent contributions, that the Diagonal Economy can only be successfull:

“If these isolated nodes of self-sufficiency connect, communicate, and interact, then they will enjoy an improve position relative to hierarchal structures. Especially in light of the massive challenges facing our civilization in the coming decades, and in light of our desire not merely to survive but to prosper and to build a better world than today, a vibrant alternative will require a superior mode of organization. It will require a superior mode of coordinating complex economic production, communicating and processing information, of building a creative and elegantly simple culture. It will need to do this without succumbing to the temptations of hierarchy, especially during times of crisis, by leveraging an organizing structure more powerful and efficient than hierarchy—even more powerful and efficient than current optimizations of hierarchies plus networks, hierarchies plus commons as seen in our current society.

He concludes that:

“From the perspective of the diagonal, the Diagonal Economy will begin as a complementary structure that is coextensive but out of phase with our current system. However, it will be precisely because it leverages a more efficient information processing structure that it will be able to eventually supplant the substrate hierarchies as the dominant system.”