Something similar to what’s been done to musicians has occurred in our workforce at large.

As more and more of us become just small cogs in giant corporate machines, hardly anyone aside from a few co-workers has any idea what we do, or the value of our efforts.   We’re no longer recognized by our fellow citizens or appreciated for our contributions, as tradespeople and business owners have been for most of the civilizations in history.

To make matters worse, as we’ve moved ever farther away from our hometowns in search of career advancement, we’ve left behind rich traditional networks of family, friends, and other interpersonal connections.   In our current world, where we’re barely known even by our neighbors, we can all too easily find ourselves feeling like just anonymous faces lost in the crowd.

At the same time, we’re less able than ever to abandon rootless employeehood by starting our own businesses.   The places where we now live are filled with people much like us, who have likewise moved in relatively recently, and haven’t yet had time to get familiar with local establishments.   This means that the folks we might otherwise count on to be our customers now make their purchases the same way we do—in the manner of frequent business travelers, sticking to well-known national or global chains in the easily-recognizable areas of town where only these giants can afford to cluster.

Sometimes it may seem like your only chance of finding success in an independent small business venture these days is if you’re lucky enough to be a teenage girl with a particular knack for telling other teenage girls what clothes to buy, and by so doing, deriving an income as an online “influencer.”

Alternatively, what happens if instead of pursuing our careers elsewhere, we choose to stay in our original hometowns?  All too often, these places become hollowed out by dramatic shifts in the global economy, or other forces no one can control.   Opportunities then shrivel, and despair sets in—often accompanied by problems of addiction, and a bitter sense of abandonment and not mattering to the rest of the world.