Comment capitalism: good for food, so so for software (Score 1) 132
Where I live (Washingon, DC), food and water is plentiful, health care is so so, and software is relatively cheap. Grossly oversimplifying here, here's where I give credit:
food - unfettered market capitalism means I eat sushi today, Indian tomorrow, and buy oranges at the supermarket for under a dollar
water - most of my water is provided by municipal government; it is extremely cheap and reliable, but tastes funny; because of funny taste, I have to buy water filters (but they're easy to get and cheap, due to unfettered market capitalism)
health care - not sure how well it really works, or where to assign credit or blame
software - I use a lot of good free software (gcc, Perl, emacs, countless utilities) and lots of reasonably cheap commercial software; I am anti-DOJ, but pro-open-source; I think capitalism doesn't inhibit software availability, but it does cause some wasted overall economic utility
food - unfettered market capitalism means I eat sushi today, Indian tomorrow, and buy oranges at the supermarket for under a dollar
water - most of my water is provided by municipal government; it is extremely cheap and reliable, but tastes funny; because of funny taste, I have to buy water filters (but they're easy to get and cheap, due to unfettered market capitalism)
health care - not sure how well it really works, or where to assign credit or blame
software - I use a lot of good free software (gcc, Perl, emacs, countless utilities) and lots of reasonably cheap commercial software; I am anti-DOJ, but pro-open-source; I think capitalism doesn't inhibit software availability, but it does cause some wasted overall economic utility
