In Defense of Anagorism

political economy in the non-market, non-state sector

Tag: business

  • That which is for sale is that which is not free

    In Why buy the cow if the milk is free? at , UnboundID asks and answers:

    What would make data sharing acceptable to consumers?

    1. Being asked what you’d be willing to share
    2. Being given meaningful value for the use of the data
    3. A guarantee that the data will be kept secure
    4. The ability to update data, or revoke access to it
    5. Knowledge of who the data will be shared with

    I speak for only one consumer. What would make data sharing acceptable to this consumer?

    1. Having a client-side record of every outbound data transfer in queryable form
    2. Having packet-level access to network traffic in/out of my devices
    3. The ability to mark individual table/view columns as
      1. private, meaning not in circulation,
      2. shareable with the general public as nonproprietary data, or
      3. shareable as proprietary (monetizable) data with a list of named data partners.

    The milk metaphor is apropos. The key to monetizing your projects is being willing to milk them.milch

  • “Freedom from arbitrary authority is a consumer good”

    So says Gary Chartier. I’m inclined to agree that it’s a consumer good, at least in the actually existing economy. If freedom is doomed always to be an economic good, then there will always be constraints on freedom. Either freedom is impossible, or freed markets are an incremental step toward actual freedom, or freed markets can actually bring the cost of freedom all the way to zero.