The number of Internet users worldwide has now surpassed two billion and so many of us have integrated the web into our lives so much that it's hard to quantify how much it's worth to us. But why not give it a shot? Think about it.
How much would someone have to pay you to give up the Internet for the rest of your life?
Would a million dollars be enough? Twenty million? How about a billion dollars?
"When I ask my students this question, they say you couldn't pay me enough," says Professor Michael Cox, director of the O'Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business.
The free market, says Cox, creates a huge gap between what consumers would be willing to pay for Internet access and how much it actually costs.
It's cheap to get online and getting cheaper all the time. We see the same pattern with many other products. Take the cell phone. When it first arrived in the 1980s, the cell phone had no apps, no music, and no Internet access--it was pretty much a brick with buttons. Yet that brick cost about $4,000, and that's why only the super rich could afford them (think Gordon Gekko in Wall Street). Today, it takes only about 40 bucks to walk home with an iPhone.
Turns out capitalism has its own built in welfare transfer system.
"When a new product comes out we all get in line for it," says Cox. "The wealthiest people are in the front of the line and they pay the highest price for the worst version of a product." Real life Gordon Gekkos buy the products when they're expensive, and that lets the rest of us enjoy the cheaper, better versions.
Even in a lousy economy we all enjoy things, from smart phones to aspirin to air conditioning, that weren't available to the world's wealthiest people just a short while ago. And if we have access to something like the Internet, something that's worth so much to us, we just might be richer than we realize.
CREDITS:
Presented by The Fund for American Studies
Written and produced by Ted Balaker, hosted by Michelle Fields, music by Jason Shaw @audionautix.com
http://audionautix.com/.
Special thanks to Mr. Robert Hoffman.
25 Comments
chicchoreaWhat is your affiliation with the TFAS and this video?
AustinEAlexandersays...A friend of mine made the video. I do not work for TFAS.
thealiI want to take back my up vote!
The argument presented is flawed, a lot of technology we use today came out of military spending for wars (e.g. GPS), so wars are a good approach and life philosophy?
MarineGunrockProvided this isn't a self-promotion in anyway, then welcome! This is a great video.
bareboards2Brick with buttons. Ha.
"Fund for American Studies." I'd be willing to bet this is a "fund" funded by the deep pocket conservatives.
*viral ad for Capitalism and the Super Wealthy.
I'm not saying what is said isn't true about how new products work, how new technologies get spread.
But good grief -- don't throw in an ad for the Wealthy. Next they'll be saying this is why the wealthy should pay less taxes -- so that they'll have more money to buy $4,000 cell phones.
bareboards2Oh, and welcome to the Sift! There was some cool stuff in this vid.
NotSureSo The Rich™ were early adopters of the internet?!
antHehe, I had to make that question as a poll on my web site: http://aqfl.net/node/9201
Yogi>> ^NotSure:
So The Rich™ were early adopters of the internet?!
Yes the Rich were given the internet after it was developed by the military as a way to make money. Public funds go to private gains.
DerHasisttot*shudder* horrible horrible free market - right wing propaganda. "Built in welfare transfer system" = *lies
And these 'spontaneous' interviews with the token maximally pigmented dude and the painted dude? *lies
Early buyers are impatient idiots. The companies knows that there will always be impatient idiots who want to have the prestige of owning sth "first!" <-- (these people). So why not charge more if there are impatient idiots? When the companies run out of impatient idiots, they lower their prices. *lies .
Sorry, but I dislike ideologues (must have sth. to do with growing up in Germany)
siftbotAdding video to channels (Lies) - requested by DerHasisttot.
messengerStupid stupid stupid. By this logic, I'm infinitely wealthy because I'd never part with my legs. Never. Not for any amount of money. So that means I'm infinitely wealthy, right? If so, I can buy the whole planet. Because I like my legs.
Things aren't worth what you would accept not to use them again. They're worth what someone else would pay you for them. Nobody is going to pay me $20,000,000 for my internet connection for life, so it's not worth that much.
shuacLooks to me like the preamble to a justification for raising broadband prices.
lavollwow, so like rich people are like totally good for the rest of us. we need more rich people, lets cut some taxes. who needs infrastructure when we have rich people around to make gadgets available to us. yaay.
bareboards2So Alexander, you have been so silent. Would like you to pop in here and elucidate?
Can you tell us about the Fund for American Studies and who bankrolls it?
Are the comments here inaccurate?
I'd love to hear from you.
PalmliXsays...lol, can I have the internet access that only costs pennies a day and isn't total shite? Right now I'm paying about $2 a day for 25mbs and 100gb cap...
MaxWilderHow about this question: At what price would you cancel your internet subscription? A lot of people are paying $50-$75 a month. What if that went up to $100? $150?
I know I would cancel it when it got close to $100, and I f'ing live on the internet. But I have to be honest. It's my entertainment source, not my revenue source. At a certain point I would be compelled by my sense of entertainment value to find an alternative. I'd probably read more, go outside more, hang out with friends, etc.
But the biggest problem with this video is that it is equating one sector (technology) with the free market as a whole. It's just not true. In technology, you buy a product and you have the product. In other sectors, the market is more like a subscription style. You have to keep paying for things, day after day, month after month. Food, shelter, insurance, gasoline, electricity, and on and on. These are markets where the price does not go down without constant competitive pressure. In fact, once the competition settles into equilibrium, they steadily rise.
That aspect of the free market actually hurts the less wealthy disproportionately. If you are one of the working poor, the vast majority of your income is spent on costs that do NOT decrease over time. Any kind of market fluctuations or income loss can put your whole life at risk. But if you are rich, and your fixed costs are 10% of your net income, then fluctuations in the market or a slow steady rise aren't even noticeable.
It is true that many of us have wonderful opportunities around us that we take for granted. But that does not make us rich by any sane definition of the word.
Lawdeedaw>> ^messenger:
Stupid stupid stupid. By this logic, I'm infinitely wealthy because I'd never part with my legs. Never. Not for any amount of money. So that means I'm infinitely wealthy, right? If so, I can buy the whole planet. Because I like my legs.
Things aren't worth what you would accept not to use them again. They're worth what someone else would pay you for them. Nobody is going to pay me $20,000,000 for my internet connection for life, so it's not worth that much.
No one will pay 20 mil for my children, but when those fuckers all come into my room and smother me with their faces this morning for some reason, even the babby, those kisses are priceless and I feel rich.
I think wealthy-ish nations are RICH-rich BECAUSE their goods are affordable--mostly because they fuck over poor countries with trade wars.
And the reason I think this way? I think that the internet and cheaply made goods make us rich versus those people who go through life with their ribs showing through their bare chests. Or those without running water. Or those without cheap-ish medicine.
Yes, the speaker is a douche with a line to sell, and no I am not buying it. However, the thoughts in my own head are my own.
volumptuousdumb video says dumb thingz
volumptuous"TFAS has been educating young leaders on the values of freedom and free-market economies since 1967."
Oh please. Fucking burn this video down to the ground. And these kid actors should get punched in the nose for helping these Randians try to fuck the American people.
volumptuous*lies
kymbosI saw all these negative comments before I watched the vid.
The basic premise of the video isn't a lie - rich people do buy things first, and products do get better with time.
But it kind of overstretches a little to suggest that capitalism is inherently welfare-maximising for society as a whole. Markets fail, and Government intervention is needed to address this. That's not controversial outside of the US Right.
Then, the closing idea: Stop bitching about being poor, poor people - your parents didn't even have iphones!
Weird.
rottenseedbitch can't say "buttons"...it's BUT-TONS not buh-ens. I bet she says "pellow" and "melk"
rottenseedps: This is fucking retarded...
spoco2Wow, fuck this video, fuck this mentality.
This is rich people trying to feel good about themselves. FUCK THEM
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