This morning, LinkedInreleased its Big Ideas 2013 series, where more than 60 thought leaders from their influencers section have written original posts on what they expect will be the massive trends that will impact the business world and people's careers in the next year.
Richard Branson, far and away LinkedIn's most popular influencer, hopes the trend will be the legalization of drugs. He writes in his blog post, titled "This Year, the War on Drugs Ends":
"If a business strategy were failing and instead of curbing a problem made it worse, would you keep it going or would you stop and consider an alternative course? Strangely, the trillion dollar war on drugs has persisted for 40 years even though it is the most dismal global policy failure of our time. Why do I care and why should you? Millions of otherwise productive lives are wasted in jail for marijuana possession and other nonviolent drug violations. California alone could raise an estimated US $1.4B in annual revenue if it taxed and regulated the sale of marijuana – so imagine the revenue that is keeping the underworld in business.
...I’d like the business community to help figure out what can be done for countries to take a hard look at the failures of the drug war and adopt humane solutions that focus on education and health care rather than criminalization and incarceration. Let’s make 2013 the year we Break The Taboo.
The other posts in the series range from big economic predictions, like T. Boone Pickens' assertion that this will be the year that America's Governors take energy policy into their own hands, to career advice.
Arianna Huffington argues that 2013 is the year to take a serious look at where our stress is coming from, and Sallie Krawcheck discusses fully engaging women in the economy.
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