You wrote:
"I make the argument that the economic success of the
US was precisely because
the government, to the degree possible, keeps out of
the way."
Well... OK, but I am not sure if you agree with my
analysis that Patents, which essentially inhibit free-market economics and
create islands of authoritarian control, or if you believe that the US, by
having a government that "keeps out of the way" is not, in fact, likely
to fall victim to outside forces.
So let me borrow from your response
and make further clarification.
The US government *kept* out of the
way from the end of the Second World War through to say the early 1990s. [ I
know that software patents were already in existence by the 1990s, but not in
enough numbers or prevalence to have a market-wide impact.
That impact
is upon us. The US software market has become rigid, inflexible, structured
around battle lines drawn from litigation filings and public rhetoric. With
time, the companies that hold those software patents will become lazy and
arrogant. [ Example: just see how innovation in browsers tailed away in the
period when IE had dominance, after crushing netscape and before the emergency
of Firefox, Chrome and Safari].
As companies dig into their trenches
and their battle lines, so younger, smaller, nimbler competitors will dance
around them, either in different legal jurisdictions or simply by shifting
software development to whole new paradigms.
In time, hopefully, the
industry will decline, collapse and implode, to be reborn absent these
artificial and expensive distractions. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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