There's another solution: massive differentiation of the economy. I think this is already starting to happen (witness the success of YC). Entirely new categories of products and services are springing up, many of which are meeting plenty of demand. In the new wired world, information about these new products and services can travel fast enough for them to serve distributed clienteles; this makes them much more viable than they would have been as local businesses. In short, the long tail of business models has opened up. It is a time of mind-blowing opportunity, but the opportunities demand creativity. It's not enough to do what somebody else is doing; you have to find another workable point on the long tail.