Everyone please read: Economics Explained : Everything You Need to Know About How the Economy Works and Where It's Going by Robert L. Heilbroner, Lester Thurow
As someone who has a degree in economics, let me offer my humble view. The OSS movement has had a huge and positive impact on the growth of not only the US economy but the World Economy as well. How 1) OSS has put significant pressure on commercial software producers this has caused them to a) lower their prices b) produce better software Competition is always good - at least for consumers. Monopolies are bad for consumers. OPEC is a monopoly. They are the #1 reason why oil prices are what they are. 2) Because of reason #1, the cost to acquire software is less expensive. This cost savings allows businesses and consumers to spend the saving on other goods and services. Consumers (whether households or businesses always look to reduce costs.) Producers (business or labor) always look for ways to increase the price of their goods and services. Supply vs Demand - is what determines prices. If OSS didn't exist, then commercial software would be much much more expensive. Remember when WordPerfect was selling for $600? Microsoft, in an effort to gain marketshare around 1992, introduced a suite of applications Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access all for $99. Suddenly, WordPerfect had to scramble to introduce their own suite, that's when they teamed up with Borland's Quattro Pro and Paradox - and had to suddenly cut the price of their flagship product WordPerfect. Now a days we have better wordprocessors for way less money - especially factoring in inflation! 3) Lastly, because OSS was free and still is, this huge cost saving spurred a ton of new innovation and businesses. Smart guys, like you all, grabbing Linux and Apache and setting up ISPs, or websites for commercial enterprises, or websites for your own commercial enterprise. Heck I have a commercial website, it cost next to nothing to host, the software for it is free. Without OSS, this would have never happened. OSS and the internet (a result of OSS mentality) has reduced the cost of advertising, marketing, customer filfullment, mailing (Yes email makes the post office think twice before raising the cost of a stamp.), even shipping, banking, etc, etc, etc - everything. The OSS movement continues to one of factors helping to spur the economy forward. The 90s saw unprecendented economic growth, this growth was due largely to the product that everyone had to have - the internet/web - which meant you had to have a computer to get to it, and you either wanted a website for your own business or wanted to surf to sites - all this kept me and probably a lot of you employed during this time - until 2000 - when the stock market began a major correction and the US economy went into a recession. At which time, I lost my job and had a hard time finding another one. Lately, this economy is desperate for the next innovation to fuel it's next growth cycle. Something needs to come out that everyone must have, either something that results in huge cost savings, or something so neat that everyone goes out and buys it. In the 80s it was computers and a number of new electonic goods, VCRs, etc. In the 90s it was the internet, web, computers. Notice that the 70s were a period of stagnation (high unemployment, high inflation, high interest rates - no real world changing products) Now in this decade, we need some new world changing consumer products - robots that really do a great job of cleaning my house, airline travel that takes me into space, thus overcoming the sound barrier and getting me to my destination in 1/10 the time at a faction the cost, new energy technology - oh how I wish that cold fusion would have worked..... I could on, but it's time to end. On Apr 7, 2005 10:08 PM, Doran Barton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Not long ago, David Smith proclaimed... > > F/OSS does not affect the US or world economy. > > Considering that the Internet was based largely on developers sharing code > and protocol specifications in a psuedo-open source fashion, I can't > imagine what the world would be like or what the booming, bubbling 1990s > would have been like without this open exchange of ideas. > > -=Fozz > > -- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] is Doran L. Barton, president, Iodynamics LLC > Iodynamics: Linux solutions - Web development - Business connectivity > "Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar." > -- Seen in a Norwegian cocktail lounge > > > .===================================. > | This has been a P.L.U.G. mailing. | > | Don't Fear the Penguin. | > | IRC: #utah at irc.freenode.net | > `===================================' > > > .===================================. | This has been a P.L.U.G. mailing. | | Don't Fear the Penguin. | | IRC: #utah at irc.freenode.net | `==================================='
