[ewzimm]

Ants and children are a good comparison. Individually, the ants are much smaller than the child, but the total biomass of ants and humans is roughly equal. With vastly different abilities, ants and humans are roughly equally successful at making more of themselves.

I'm not talking about a theoretical situation in which small businesses or even large ones might get creative to compete against Amazon. This is something that's actually happening right now, and consumers are benefiting from it. Prices are going down while the expected quality of customer service is going up. Wages in retail are starting to rise to attract better talent as competition increases. Companies that used to be complacent because they owned their local markets are rethinking their strategy for the first time in a long time because they have no choice.

The ants are thriving even in the cities.