Catching up on my economics blog readings I noticed that one of the blogs was using a "Listen Now" link, that allowed the readers to download the post as an Mp3 file on their players, and listen to the post while driving to work. I checked into it, and it turns out that service is free for any blogger to use. How cool is that? (Try the Listen Now above any post!)
I was so impressed I sent them a thank you note!
Where else but in a capitalist society could this happen? That is a serious question, actually.
I'm not sure I understand the premises of the question. Why does it matter what the economic organization of the society is to developing a osftware product? Could you clarify that one a bit more?
ReplyDeleteThe question has to do with the likelihood that various political economic systems have of generating new products that people need or want. Some systems are set up in such a way that they continuously generate new inventions, new products, new services, based on what consumers value. Other systems do not.
ReplyDeleteHaving lived in the communist system of the Soviet Union I can say with certainty that I did not wake up many times with the kind of a joy of discovery of a new product that I experienced today. The production was centrally planned and organized, resulting not only in a lack of trivial things such as this software, but, unfortunately, in much more fundamental goods such as food. A quick search of the Russian famine of 1920s or the Ukrainian famine of 1930s offers the grim statistics to support this claim. A stroll through the Eastern Berlin/West Berlin to this day reveals the staggering differences in the quantity and quality of products generated by capitalist and non-capitalist systems.
Thanks. I hope the Novak piece reflects this general insight.
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