When Innovation In Toys Exceed Innovation in the Real World You Know Your Society Has Given Up

As we increase the regulation in various industries, we find there are fewer participants. This might be good for a few of the larger corporations at the top of any given industry sector, but it also prevents new startups, and therefore limits supply. Thus, the larger Corporation at the top which is producing in that industry has no competition and continues to raise the price, and they are able to get away with this due to supply and demand and their friends in government creating the regulations or barriers to entry.

It seems with all the regulations for manufacturing, garage startups, small business, and intellectual patent law that fewer and fewer concept designers, inventors, and engineers are engaged in the important work of producing innovations in the marketplace. Often they give up, and they find less rewarding work, and some other way to get by and use their knowledge to make money. One trend that has bothered me is the number of engineers who spend all of their time designing and making toys.

Why do they do this? Well, if they were making airplanes, rocket ships, or automobiles there are tons of regulations preventing those new prototypes from getting into the marketplace and being used by humanity. Therefore, we all lose because we don’t get those new innovations, which would probably actually help with the efficiency, fuel economy, and help drive our economy forward with new jobs.

Therefore, many of them design toys because making toys is fairly easy, it’s a no-brainer, but it still does require an engineering mind, and creative genius. Thus, it would appear to me that the more toy designers we have, well it is directly proportional to the over regulation we put on businesses, and innovation and economic stifling we cause. No, it’s not a perfect economic indicator in that regard, but I would submit to you that there is a direct correlation to this.

On June 1, 2011 there was an interesting article titled “Bring Out the Big Guns – An Industry Bright Spot, Toys Get Kids Off the Couch and Wetter than Ever” by Ann Zimmerman in the Wall Street Journal. Although somewhat tongue and cheek, as in fight obesity have your kids run around with water guns and playing, which is good advice, I considered the ramification of all this brain power focused on kid’s toys rather than on creating inventions and innovations for our overall civilization.

On one hand it shows that creative geniuses’ minds are young and playful, and that is all good, and yet on another it shows they’ve chosen to focus on kid’s toys because there are fewer barriers to deal with, almost as if taking the easy way out, going with the flow, and well, kind of giving up on all of it you see? Indeed, I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.