tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719550.post8422307462077401520..comments2007-09-20T22:16:27.209-04:00Tom Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08577165613934129833noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719550.post-88655603349269162372007-09-20T22:05:00.000-04:002007-09-20T22:05:00.000-04:00Nice graph. I'm tempted to go dig up some quotes from Marx which show that he predicted this sort of thing - some people think Marx is now out of date (industrial model) now that we have free software development over the internet (just a splinter of real economic trends)<BR/><BR/>Another point is that the freeing up of ideas does not correlate directly with economic trends and that politics is influenced by factors other than economic and social class<BR/><BR/>For example, a great deal of intellectual freedom can be traced back to the competition b/w USA and USSR following Sputnik (1957). Most of the creative work in computing can be traced back to ARPA and PARC which seem to have grown directly out of that. That approach was shut down by the Mansfield amendments circa 1972 (?) and then with commercialisation of computers the dumbing down began in earnest and has continued to this day.Bill Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00206808014093631762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719550.post-75247238423610441752007-09-19T13:00:00.000-04:002007-09-19T13:00:00.000-04:00It's worth noting that the other name for the Great Compression is the 'New Deal' - wherein it was recognized that the only way to keep Americans onside was to give them a larger share of the national wealth.<BR/><BR/>The new Deal, of course, is absolutely loathed by the right, which has been waging a 20 year campaign to roll back the gains and restore inequality in American society.<BR/><BR/>After the Reagan and Bush presidencies, they have largely succeeded.Downeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06140591903467372209noreply@blogger.com