The Paradox of Dependency

What I call the “paradox of dependency” represents one of the great, often unanticipated traps in life, it seems. The more valuable is some resource (or person) – the greater its “utility” to use the economists’ jargon – the greater may be the cost of losing it. In other words, our vulnerability increases in direct proportion to its value.

An obvious example these days is the Internet. In just a few short years, a great many people, and businesses, have come to depend on it. And when Internet services occasionally go down, for various reasons, the consequences can be severe or even catastrophic. Indeed, complex technological societies are dependent upon an immensely intricate web of activities and processes, and we only become of aware of this, it seems, when something goes wrong – say a power outage, or a trucking strike, or a prolonged regional drought. And the same may be true with people. If there is only one really competent plumber in your community and he moves away, your pipes may no longer hold water.

Indeed, our vulnerability further increases when we do not have options or contingency plans -- in other words when our dependency is monogamous. Thus, if we prepare for a power outage with a backup generator and a wood stove, we effectively reduce our dependency. Or, if we have a mail-order business that uses both the Internet and phone orders, we might be able to continue taking orders if the Internet goes down.

On other other hand, some of the megatrends in our society have left us increasingly vulnerable. For instance, back in 1900, half of the American population still lived (mostly) on small farms. As a society our agricultural dependency was highly diversified. And when the dust bowl drought hit the American southwest in the 1920s and 30s, we were able to fallow one-quarter of our farmland and still feed our people. But in the past 80 years, our food production system has become highly concentrated, both regionally and in terms of ownership, even as the population has multiplied. Thus, today about one-quarter of all the fruits and vegetables produced in the United States are grown in California. Unfortunately, we now know that California has been subject to recurrent, severe “megadroughts” over the past 10,000 years or so. In other words, we have achieved much higher productivity and efficiency (and reduced food costs) while at the same time increasing our dependency on a system that is also highly vulnerable. Food for thought -- you might say!

Thought for the day: In a long-term study by biologist Kwang Jeon in the 1980s, a strain of Amoeba proteus was initially infected with bacterial parasites that were resistant to the hosts' digestive enzymes. But after 200 generations, or 18 months, a beneficial (mutualistic) relationship had become established, and after 10 years the symbionts had developed complete interdependence; they could no longer survive independently. So, if you are going to become a dependent, do it wisely.