Comments on: What broken society?

By: Discussion with Phillip Blond, Jill Kirby and Matthew Taylor « Freethinking Economist

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 12:36:55 +0000

[...] thinks this, and certainly doubt that he has any decent evidence for the claim – see the Economist on [...]

By: Edgar

Edgar — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:06:53 +0000

This is less free thinking and more crass speculation. In the USA Cliton reduced taxes for lower income families and raised taxes on the wealthiest families. Maybe this redistribution of wealth allowed the internet to flourish, maybe the ratification of NAFTA? One thing for sure is that you can’t establish any correlation.

By: freethinkingeconomist

freethinkingeconomist — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:08:38 +0000

Obviously I was being a bit quick there, sure. But my general point was that within the Westminster bubble, policy wonks in particular are prone to thinking tht if something is not done by the government then it does not exist, with the swift corrolary that when the government is suffering austerity then society is too. I remember the 1990s – a period of almost continual fiscal consolidation – as one of great expansion in other areas of life – not all of which are measured in GDP, let alone government spending. Did the government cutting back help this? Perhaps yes because in the macroeconomy of the time it lowered rates as a result. And less crowding out of other resources, like skilled people. If the governments of the world at that time had decided that it was up to them to provide the added increment of creative investment in the economy, we might have got a lot of things, but not Google. I reckon.

By: Edgar

Edgar — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:18:40 +0000

“Fiscal consolidations can be good times – witness the mid 1990s creation of the Internet.”

You really need to establish a correlation between low public spending and the rise of the internet to
justify this comment.

I find the logic rather strange anyway to be honest, the Atom bomb was developed during the holocaust, does this mean holocausts can be good times to?

By: freethinkingeconomist

freethinkingeconomist — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:10:56 +0000

I see your quibble. But its like many things: it may be invented at a certain time, but it takes commercial drive and optimism to roll it out. When were steam engines actually invented, compared to when they were actually widespread?

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:52:22 +0000

Quibble:

The internet wasn’t created in the mid-90s. The internet was created decades beforehand. The World Wide Web on the other hand, was created in either 89/90 (depending on your point of view).