>Reading your comments about the comparisons between your
>country and the U.S."public" mapping data may not be a fair
>comparison.
Due to your references to the southern Americas further on I'm
assuming you are responding to Bruce Mckenzie's article at
http://members.home.net/freedata/bolivia1.htm
>In Central and South America, there is virtually zero
>middle-class in their societies. There is no income tax to support
>the government, and as a result the military services have established
>"monopolies" on mapping services and mapping data.
<<snip>>
>support the national defense is the mapping activities. They can not
>give the stuff away, because the public did not pay for the maps and data.
>The public does not pay (directly) for the military through taxes. If
you're
>going to defend your country, you have to pay for the Army some kind of
>way! This is how it is implemented.
Except that in Bolivia companies like SerGeoMin are choosing to re-digitise
the data rather than purchase it. No military funding being gained there. I
would think a policy of giving data away would help stimulate growth
towards a middle class, who would in future pay income taxes.
>This arrangement is a function of individual national societies, and the
>way the U.S. government operates may not be a valid corollary for your
>country.
Agreed, Canada could not adopt US policies wholesale and expect the same
results. However Canadian and American governement policies and economics
are similar enough (relative to the southern Americas) that comparison of
policies and their economic results is a valid exercise. It was the Canadian
gov't polcies after all which started this thread.
-matt
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