one thing I noticed in this article is that the fellow named Strauss who started the company apparently was able to do so because he himself made some technical innovation that allowed him to produce superior quality cigarette papers. I don't think that happens very much any more, that a person with an innovation ends up starting a company. Today the managers are in charge, people with managerial and financial expertise get to own new companies nowadays. People who merely make the nuts and bolts innovations that make it all possible are just used today by the more dominant managerial types.
Yes, I caught that too.
To me that's as big a factor as anything.
That's America! Something the myopic bean counters who manage corps. own by "British Indians"{the worst blend of snooty-slavedriver tradition}.
I can tell you what happens to someone who comes up with a new idea in modern day America. First, you go talk to venture capital people. If they are interested then you get to talk to "experts" who do "due diligance" on your idea. Then, once they have your idea fully captured and documented, they decide if they like you or not. If they do, you get to join the new company as a senoir manager. If they don't like you, then you get to enjoy your new role as "plaintiff". Five years later you end up settling for some crappy settlement while the people who robbed you become centimillionaires and billionaires.
Our system is broken beyond repair, and more and more people are figuring it out for themselves. Has anyone else noticed the dearth of "breakthrough" ideas coming out lately? Could it be that the engineers and inventors out there finally figured out that the name of the game is "you can't win"?
A special pox and curse on those who have twisted our legal system into the mess that it is today. I hope the Christian Hell becomes a reality for them, eternal punishment in Hellfire would be a modest repayment for all the damage they have done.