>On 1/27/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
>> >Also, plenty gets written under scientific and research grants and
>> >such. I paid the rent for a couple years under such an arrangement.
>> >I'm pretty sure that's how the original internet software got written.
>>
>> In other words, it's not a model for running a real economy, but for
>> free-riding off a money economy financed by others?
>
>Um, sure. Like non-toll roads? Single-payer healthcare?
>
>I'm presuming you didn't just go all neo-lib on us, so could you
>explain the difference between government funded software and
>government funded anything?
Not government-funded - just externally funded. I.e., for free software to exist, programmers have to have jobs in the money economy, and use hardware that someone else paid for. It's not a model for organizing the broad economy, because, to use the jargon, the real economy runs mainly on rival goods, and software is a nonrival good (e.g., I can copy Windows perfectly, endlessly, and costlessly, but I can't do that with food, clothing, and shelter).
Doug