The magnificently complex health care legislation embodies the compromised but effective ways in which an imperial president works. Today's smaller world requires such "real politic" in business and society.

Through a full-court press, the White House worked the media, the Hill, its opponents and the industry coalitions to get what Obama (and most of his party) wanted. The net effect: More will have health coverage.

The surprising social and industrial lesson from this change: Most of us will learn how to spend less on medicines, surgery and health care in general. It was a lesson in which political compromise, complex deal-making and awareness of capital constraints brought all of us into a more frugal way of dealing with our shared future.

I call this the art of competitive frugality. What do I mean by this term?

I mean decision-makers like CEOs and the top executives of nations are finding new ways to do more with less. Here is why. There are many more of us in a smaller world, 6 billion at least. We all consume more than our grandfathers, often by a factor of 20.

These higher facts of "the age of the consumer" are being recognized by corporations with real material constraints before them. Even politicians with visions as grand as those of President Obama are exacting compromises based on this change.

Recognizing these higher facts is what some celebrated recently on Earth Day year 40. This 21st-century change makes us more competitive and frugal at the same time. In this smaller world, we must all become like Ben Franklin -- frugal, inventive, diplomatic and witty in the face of opposition and limits.

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