Toby DiPasquale on 26 Oct 2007 21:41:59 -0000


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Re: [PLUG] Free Software


On Fri, Oct 26, 2007 at 05:22:36PM -0400, Matthew Rosewarne wrote:
> On Friday 26 October 2007, zuzu wrote:
> > selling "units" of a mass-produced item is a relic of a manufacturing
> > economy.  in a knowledge economy, it's selling the _creativity_ of
> > _people_ that's the scarce/valuable commodity.  instead of buying
> > "things" we need to focus on buying "people" in the form of creative
> > labor (vis-a-vis opportunity cost) to invent _new_ features and
> > functionality.  last I checked, your brain is the only one of its
> > kind.
> 
> Most of what we buy, particularly what we _need_ to buy, is the product of the 
> manufacturing economy.  Creative labour isn't really that important if you 
> can't build whatever it is that you're dreaming up.  A major problem for the 
> US is that we have bought into the idea that we no longer need to make 
> anything, and so we are actively dissolving our economic future.  The reason 
> the US rose to be an economic powerhouse in the late 19th century, other than 
> its agricultural prowess, was its immense manufacturing base.  Only in recent 
> history did we essentially abandon manufacturing to become a consumer 
> and "knowledge" economy, which is an entirely unsustainable model.  It's not 
> that we don't need creativity or knowledge, but unless we can actually 
> manufacture things, our chances of continued success are quite slim.

I would caution you, Matt, to perhaps read up on this subject a bit more.
Your statements indicate a clear lack of understanding of basic economics
and the US and world economies.

-- 
Toby DiPasquale
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