Governor Christie rejects the future and fights the inevitable

If you haven’t heard, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s administration is blocking Tesla from selling direct to consumers. Tesla says existing automotive franchises have a conflict of interest in selling their electric cars and wants to sell directly to consumers through their own stores. Who convinced Christie to take this stance? The automotive dealers association, of course. And to think that Chris Christie is an outspoken free market proponent…sometimes.

Is that a dry run for presidential decision-making?

Holding back time

This isn’t much different than what’s happened to Uber in various destinations where it has been limited and even outright banned. There are powerful, entrenched incumbents who have a great deal to lose — and therefor a great deal to spend — to save business models that have been overcome by technology and time. But how long can any politician or business stay on the wrong side of technology and change?

Governments have been a real challenge for startup companies who are more and more often ignoring the rules and bulldozing forward with their ideas. As reported in Inc.:

Consider that on your phone, you can purchase luggage (say, on Amazon), find someone to carry said luggage (TaskRabbit), rent an apartment for a couple of days (Airbnb), and hail a luxury sedan (you get the picture). But when the luggage retailer doesn’t pay state sales tax, the employment provider doesn’t pay minimum wage, the renter doesn’t hold the lease, and the sedan driver doesn’t charge a fixed rate? The government is pissed.

The same is coming to banking, higher education and healthcare, where the incumbents have been allowed to lag behind in services and technology with outdated business models ripe for disruption. Clay Shirky, as a professor himself, says:

The biggest threat those of us working in colleges and universities face isn’t video lectures or online tests. It’s the fact that we live in institutions perfectly adapted to an environment that no longer exists.

The same is true for healthcare, where doctors who’ve benefited from practicing “craft medicine” will need to accept that large data sets find patterns that provide scientific — not anecdotal — evidence for how to treat patients. “Patients aren’t widgets” is a rallying cry for those trying to stay rooted in the past.

Resistance is futile

These are incredibly fast-moving times that will punish those who can’t keep up, even when governments like Christie’s collaborate in protecting special interests for them inevitable. As consumers and voters, it becomes our job to make sure our elected officials are responsible to the needs of the many, not to the campaign contributions of the few.