These things are like watching waves at the beach. You take a snapshot and show it to people and few will be able to say whether the wave is coming in or going out. Everyone will have an opinion one way or the other though. Thing to remember is, we are looking at dynamic ever changing system but discuss it in static snapshots. Thats always a source of confusion.
Whats important about any centralization-decdntralization debate is that its a Tradeoff, ALWAYS a tradeoff, between Convenience and Freedom (See Tim Wu's book Master Switch for more). No one side ever wins because both have value in different situations.
Look at covid as an example. Each govt comes out with its own vaccination, quarantine, treatment rules. This makes sense because they each have different capacities and resources. Singapore and Germany can do thing that Vietnam and Kenya cant.
Now if my job involves moving silicon chips and their raw materials through 8 countries every day, all of a sudden my work load has jumped 8x cuz I have to follow 8 different sets of rules. I say screw that shit cuz my salary isnt jumping by 8x. Next thing you know factories are shutting down and people are being let go. If you have built up enough clout over the years, you can pull different govt officials into a room and say lets solve this, and what then emerges is more standardized rules. You could say that has centralized things that were decentralized. But thats not the point cuz tomorrow you know the Germans, who strictly follow the standards, realize they can be improved but why wait around for agreement from everyone, lets add the new ones and you can see how the cycle restarts.
Whats important about any centralization-decdntralization debate is that its a Tradeoff, ALWAYS a tradeoff, between Convenience and Freedom (See Tim Wu's book Master Switch for more). No one side ever wins because both have value in different situations.
Look at covid as an example. Each govt comes out with its own vaccination, quarantine, treatment rules. This makes sense because they each have different capacities and resources. Singapore and Germany can do thing that Vietnam and Kenya cant.
Now if my job involves moving silicon chips and their raw materials through 8 countries every day, all of a sudden my work load has jumped 8x cuz I have to follow 8 different sets of rules. I say screw that shit cuz my salary isnt jumping by 8x. Next thing you know factories are shutting down and people are being let go. If you have built up enough clout over the years, you can pull different govt officials into a room and say lets solve this, and what then emerges is more standardized rules. You could say that has centralized things that were decentralized. But thats not the point cuz tomorrow you know the Germans, who strictly follow the standards, realize they can be improved but why wait around for agreement from everyone, lets add the new ones and you can see how the cycle restarts.
Things are always changing.