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I think a fundamental problem here is that most information and knowledge goods don't fit well into an economic framework which is based on the assumption of sc

by d10r 9y ago

I think a fundamental problem here is that most information and knowledge goods don't fit well into an economic framework which is based on the assumption of scarcity. Of course you can artificially add scarcity with DRM tech, patent law etc. But what mostly happens in practice is that you need to come up with some kind of indirect business model. Like e.g. Google, developing a lot of great tech, but ultimately being a broker of user attention and data. This disconnect between business model and products leads to a lot of unaligned incentives between makers and users of product. That's the innocent looking root of evilness - no bad people required.

dredmorbius 9y ago
Pretty much, yes. Market economics works for commodities. For wages, it tends to subsistence levels. For public goods (including information) it under-provisions. For rents (fixed-quantity goods or services, including both land and attention), this tends to absorb surplus valley. For assets and risk-based elements, I'm still sorting out the dynamics, though they also appear to be poor. There's various precedent for much of this: * Adam Smith's classifications of types of goods: commodities, wages, stock (capital), rents, assets (gold and silver), interest, and "expenses of the sovereign" (public goods). * Various economic-sector classifications. Alexandre Dumas, Simon Kuznets, Clark, and Beniger come up with 3-5 elements, generally: extractive/sourcing, manufacture & construction, transport and distribution, risk and finance (especially FIRE), governance and information. I'm finding these fascinating. * Industrial classifications including SIC, NAICS, and ISIC. * A classification of technological methods I've been looking at for a few years, including materials, networks, information, control, knowledge, and power transmission & transformation. But yes: inoformation and markets play poorly. Software and systems incorporate both information and risk elements. (And probably others.)

by d10r 9y ago

dredmorbius 9y ago

Pretty much, yes. Market economics works for commodities. For wages, it tends to subsistence levels. For public goods (including information) it under-provisions. For rents (fixed-quantity goods or services, including both land and attention), this tends to absorb surplus valley. For assets and risk-based elements, I'm still sorting out the dynamics, though they also appear to be poor. There's various precedent for much of this: * Adam Smith's classifications of types of goods: commodities, wages, stock (capital), rents, assets (gold and silver), interest, and "expenses of the sovereign" (public goods). * Various economic-sector classifications. Alexandre Dumas, Simon Kuznets, Clark, and Beniger come up with 3-5 elements, generally: extractive/sourcing, manufacture & construction, transport and distribution, risk and finance (especially FIRE), governance and information. I'm finding these fascinating. * Industrial classifications including SIC, NAICS, and ISIC. * A classification of technological methods I've been looking at for a few years, including materials, networks, information, control, knowledge, and power transmission & transformation. But yes: inoformation and markets play poorly. Software and systems incorporate both information and risk elements. (And probably others.)