Mythinformation

MythInformation

Landon Winner

Winner is right when he says that that computers have made the rich, richer, the powerful, even more powerful, (quant trading, military) but I think he failed to see back in '86 how ubiquitous the technology revolution would become and how open the standards would be.  Sure, there are plenty of commercial firms like Apple and Microsoft that push proprietary formats (iTunes music, .doc file format), but there are an equal amount of open source software providers where you get all of the creative and productivity tools you want for free and stealing professional software has become so easy and so universal that it is like Best Buy puts unlimited T.V.s and gadgets in your living room and tells you not to touch any of them.  Sure it undermines the economy,  but large corporations because of their ridged legal requirements are bound to purchase this software legally.  That is their tax for behaving like a large corporation.  The rest of us can steal whatever we want as long as we don't get caught, because we are at significant disadvantage when dealing with them, so we take what we can.  

Laptops are available today for as cheap as $100.  An internet connection is free at many public wifi hotspots like in public parks, libraries, and even some for-profit businesses like Borders and Panera Bread.  On the internet is wealth of information, most of it crap, but some of it is credible.  Communication is virtually free when using the internet.  

Knowledge is power, but there's strength in numbers.   Until people decide use technology to organize for something greater than the next Tupperwear party, the big guys will always have the upper hand.