Random notes by slowblogger

I often find a serious misunderstanding about the kind of free market economy that Milton Friedman spoke for. It is absolutely fine (and respectable) for you to help the poor. Pursuing self interests in a free market is often equated to pursuing profits, but there can be non-profit self interests as well. If one pursues a life helping the poor voluntarily, as a full-time charity worker or as a part-time volunteer or a donator, she is pursuing her self interest. In a free market society, you don’t have to pursue profits. Do whatever you feel passionate for. Now, the issue becomes more complicated when it comes to a corporation, which is a group of individuals with different interests. I believe that in this setting the long-term profit is the best common goal. I don’t think mixing charity and business as usual in the same organization is a good idea. But if you are the top management, it is up to you. Just disclose you are doing it. 1 day ago

I don’t understand why you are trying so hard to prove that the world can have only the ‘free’ business model. There can be different ways to make money. Isn’t embracing variety a critical element of the longtail? 2 days ago

I think the name of “capitalism” is misleading. I don’t think the capital is the core of the free market. I think the entrepreneurial idea is. So, we should call it marketism, entrepreneurism, or freeism. I have a related writing here. http://slowblogger.com/2008/06/wrong-paul-krugman-chris-anderson.html 5 days ago

A great article from a great thinker. I would add one thing. If you want to feel you are contributing to the society, you join (or start) an entity that will increase the welfare of the people who will buy your products. And work hard to provide a great product. If you want to do good for the poor, join or start a business that provide affordable products or jobs to the poor. 5 days ago

Same here in Korea. I think we are entering the clash of geography and faith. Used to be that people living in the same region had a relatively homogeneous faith. And people also assumed that they, living in the same region, need to follow the same rules. I think that is less relevant now, due to increased spectrum of ideas and beliefs within a region. My hypothetical solution is to divide a country into smaller pieces. In the US case, it could be delegating more to the states. Then, you can move to a state whose rules you agree more with. Likewise, any region with a same language has a few states with different ideologies so that you can live with people whom you share beliefs with without learning foreidn languages. But immigration based on faith, that is “you are accepted if you share our beliefs”, could complement it. 6 days ago

@51 Alz, “The country (South Korea) and territory (Singapore) with of the fastest and cheapest internet access in the world is state owned.” I am a Korean, and none of our Telcos/ISPs are state-owned. They own or lease their networks. Korea Telecom, the incumbent telco, used to be a state-owned company, but not now. 1 week ago

@31. Larry Larrikin “…But tell me, why do you trust corporations? Government and corporations are the same people, same money, same thing.” Isn’t that the point? See the different history of communist countries and free-market countries. They had smart people with good intention as well. 1 week ago

I don’t agree that digital contents should (or will have to) be free. Furthermore, I think if we require content to be free, we lose capitalism. I think idea, not capital, is the defining element of capitalism. I wrote a blog post. http://slowblogger.com/2008/06/wrong-paul-krugman-chris-anderson.html 1 week ago

Bill Gates speech on Creative Capitalism at Davos. He seems to mean social entrepreneurship, which is using market incentive (profits and recognition) for helping the poor. 2 weeks ago