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> Would you also like the government to “build a market” so that everyone can have all the software they want Yes, of course I would like the democratically el

> Would you also like the government to “build a market” so that everyone can have all the software they want Yes, of course I would like the democratically elected government to run the economy in a sane way. > and have the government decide what a fair amount for software is? No, that would be absurd. The fair amount for software is equal to its marginal cost which is zero.

scarface74 7y ago
So how should we pay for software developers? Should software as service products that have hosting cost also be free?
- anoncake 7y ago
  > So how should we pay for software developers? Taxes, of course. That's how we fund things where individually charging people does not make sense. > Should software as service products that have hosting cost also be free? Generally not, why?
  - scarface74 7y ago
    So now we are going to charge higher taxes to subsidize software developers. Are we also going to have a centralized “5 Year Plan” for the economy? How has this worked for China and Russia. They realized decades ago that this didn’t work.
    - anoncake 7y ago
      > So now we are going to charge higher taxes to subsidize software developers. What's wrong with "subsidizing", aka paying, software developers? > Are we also going to have a centralized “5 Year Plan” for the economy? How has this worked for China and Russia. They realized decades ago that this didn’t work. The lack of creativity on a website supposedly populated by engineers keeps astounding me. Hell, you don't even need creativity to be aware that public broadcasters exist. Or to recognize that computing and communication technology has somewhat improved in the past 30 years. Considering that the planners of the eastern block had to greatly simplify their plans and still weren't able to finish their calculations within 5 years, the state capitalist economy worked remarkably well.
      - scarface74 7y ago
        Public broadcasting isn’t exactly producing great content. Do you really want broadcasting to be controlled by the government? What happens when the “other party” is in power? China didn’t “work” until they started allowing private ownership and profit.
        anoncake 7y ago
        > Public broadcasting isn’t exactly producing great content. I frankly don't know if our experiences differ that much or if your mind is clouded by ideology. > Do you really want broadcasting to be controlled by the government? Of course not, that would be even worse than private broadcasting is. > What happens when the “other party” is in power? I don't understand the question. Which "other party" do you mean? There are many. > China didn’t “work” until they started allowing private ownership and profit. China didn't have an economy at all? That's news to me. Maoism must be even more stupid than I thought.
        scarface74 7y ago
        If the “public” is funding broadcasting and the elected officials are holding the purse strings, do you really think they are going to be overly critical of the government? China had an economy but resources weren’t properly allocated and people were starving in one region while the other region was producing things that no one needed.
        anoncake 7y ago
        > If the “public” is funding broadcasting [...] do you really think they are going to be overly critical of the government? This is not a hypothetical question, public broadcasters do exist and do criticize their governments. Will your next question be if public healthcare can work better than what the USA is doing? > If the “public” is funding broadcasting and the elected officials are holding the purse strings Then whoever drafted that law didn't do their job which would have included researching how public broadcasters around the world are organized. Or they're British and think limiting the power of Parliament is for Europeans, Colonials and other wimps anyway. > China had an economy but resources weren’t properly allocated and people were starving in one region while the other region was producing things that no one needed. Thanks for telling me things that I already know. I didn't write "Considering that the planners of the eastern block had to greatly simplify their plans and still weren't able to finish their calculations within 5 years," for decoration.
slovette 7y ago
Not trying to be rude: I’m not sure you really know what “marginal cost” means and it’s relation to a product’s economic impact. Twice, so far, you’ve used it here in the wrong context.
- anoncake 7y ago
  Please explain then.
  - slovette 7y ago
    I didn’t see this response, apologies. It seems you keep referencing: marginal cost == value. That’s very untrue. Indeed marginal cost is a factor in value, but is most certainly not directly relational. Simply put, value is ascertained by a product’s measure of overall impact. An example would be a simple script that tally’s an employee’s hours from clock in and clock out times. Say a task that once took a bookkeeper an hour to do, with the script takes .1 seconds. Let’s say the script cost $5 to create but zero dollars to duplicate. It doesn’t mean it’s value is zero. It’s value is equivalently equal to the hour of bookkeeping time that person saved multiplied by however many times the task is used in any given time frame. Marginal Cost is 0. But the value is far from it. A similar exercise is done to evaluate the value of entertainment. Different factors, but same idea.

scarface74 7y ago

So how should we pay for software developers? Should software as service products that have hosting cost also be free?

anoncake 7y ago
> So how should we pay for software developers? Taxes, of course. That's how we fund things where individually charging people does not make sense. > Should software as service products that have hosting cost also be free? Generally not, why?
- scarface74 7y ago
  So now we are going to charge higher taxes to subsidize software developers. Are we also going to have a centralized “5 Year Plan” for the economy? How has this worked for China and Russia. They realized decades ago that this didn’t work.
  - anoncake 7y ago
    > So now we are going to charge higher taxes to subsidize software developers. What's wrong with "subsidizing", aka paying, software developers? > Are we also going to have a centralized “5 Year Plan” for the economy? How has this worked for China and Russia. They realized decades ago that this didn’t work. The lack of creativity on a website supposedly populated by engineers keeps astounding me. Hell, you don't even need creativity to be aware that public broadcasters exist. Or to recognize that computing and communication technology has somewhat improved in the past 30 years. Considering that the planners of the eastern block had to greatly simplify their plans and still weren't able to finish their calculations within 5 years, the state capitalist economy worked remarkably well.
    - scarface74 7y ago
      Public broadcasting isn’t exactly producing great content. Do you really want broadcasting to be controlled by the government? What happens when the “other party” is in power? China didn’t “work” until they started allowing private ownership and profit.
      - anoncake 7y ago
        > Public broadcasting isn’t exactly producing great content. I frankly don't know if our experiences differ that much or if your mind is clouded by ideology. > Do you really want broadcasting to be controlled by the government? Of course not, that would be even worse than private broadcasting is. > What happens when the “other party” is in power? I don't understand the question. Which "other party" do you mean? There are many. > China didn’t “work” until they started allowing private ownership and profit. China didn't have an economy at all? That's news to me. Maoism must be even more stupid than I thought.
        scarface74 7y ago
        If the “public” is funding broadcasting and the elected officials are holding the purse strings, do you really think they are going to be overly critical of the government? China had an economy but resources weren’t properly allocated and people were starving in one region while the other region was producing things that no one needed.
        anoncake 7y ago
        > If the “public” is funding broadcasting [...] do you really think they are going to be overly critical of the government? This is not a hypothetical question, public broadcasters do exist and do criticize their governments. Will your next question be if public healthcare can work better than what the USA is doing? > If the “public” is funding broadcasting and the elected officials are holding the purse strings Then whoever drafted that law didn't do their job which would have included researching how public broadcasters around the world are organized. Or they're British and think limiting the power of Parliament is for Europeans, Colonials and other wimps anyway. > China had an economy but resources weren’t properly allocated and people were starving in one region while the other region was producing things that no one needed. Thanks for telling me things that I already know. I didn't write "Considering that the planners of the eastern block had to greatly simplify their plans and still weren't able to finish their calculations within 5 years," for decoration.

slovette 7y ago

Not trying to be rude: I’m not sure you really know what “marginal cost” means and it’s relation to a product’s economic impact. Twice, so far, you’ve used it here in the wrong context.

anoncake 7y ago
Please explain then.
- slovette 7y ago
  I didn’t see this response, apologies. It seems you keep referencing: marginal cost == value. That’s very untrue. Indeed marginal cost is a factor in value, but is most certainly not directly relational. Simply put, value is ascertained by a product’s measure of overall impact. An example would be a simple script that tally’s an employee’s hours from clock in and clock out times. Say a task that once took a bookkeeper an hour to do, with the script takes .1 seconds. Let’s say the script cost $5 to create but zero dollars to duplicate. It doesn’t mean it’s value is zero. It’s value is equivalently equal to the hour of bookkeeping time that person saved multiplied by however many times the task is used in any given time frame. Marginal Cost is 0. But the value is far from it. A similar exercise is done to evaluate the value of entertainment. Different factors, but same idea.