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Maybe pointless, does internet affect economy??
As pointless as this is I was just thinking does internet in anyway hurt economy. I know many ways it helps but is there also a downside? I mean, cds for example. Why would you go buy one when you get it for free. Books, especially non fiction. Why would you go buy one when all the info you need is on here. Newspapers, why would you go buy one when you can read it on here. Movies, you can watch on here. Even maybe home doctoring can be done from here. Maybe there is much more that I am leaving out and maybe this is just stupid thinking. I don't know, but I wonder what others think? I remember the post where online has passed newspapers, it has to help someone and hurt someone, right??
suzi@republicansforobama.org
Are you sending me an invitation to your inauguration party Blakey? ;-)
It's a good question, Blake.
I believe that changes happen no matter what... the industrial revolution; PC's in every home; the Internet.
Some companies will be hurt, but there are other companies that will be on the cutting edge and will emerge with a new way to provide a service and earn a profit from every change, IMO. So I believe that any negative impact will eventually be negated by positives.
As to your main question, I guess there have been tradeoffs-- newspapers are struggling because they got to the online arena late. The dot-com bubble demonstrated that slapping a .com to a stupid idea is still akin to putting makeup on porcine. One wonders that with the increased speed at which knowledge is moved online, disinformation, malware, and spam can move just as fast. What effects this has on the economy as a whole is something I'll defer to someone who knows economics.
----And there's no sense crying over every mistake
You just keep on trying 'til you run out of cake.
Collecting TAXES is the biggest downside for politicians, since most internet transactions are exempt from state sales tax collection and protectionist regulation.
In many ways, the Internet is the world's largest Free Trade environment----something the pro-government regulators and taxers can't stand.
In my state for example, people are supposed to (voluntarily) declare out-of-state purchases for the purpose of sales tax collection when filing their state tax return.
Of course, nobody ever does. Only a fool would voluntarily pay sales taxes for some doodad bought on Ebay for example.
With billions of Internet purchases going on, the pro-government shmucks would love to get their tax-hungry hands on those transactions.
There remain significant Constitutional questions whether such regulations are legal.
http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=latestnews&id=2187
And "pro-government shmucks", should probably include just about everyone in government, Republican or Democrat, because they always look out for new revenue opportunities. They'll be tempted more than ever now that most states are essentially broke and are required to never deficit-spend.
----And there's no sense crying over every mistake
You just keep on trying 'til you run out of cake.