VisaahanAnandarajah

20418505
CS492A0

ThearticleOurEconomiesaremessedup.AndthecauseistheInternetbyMarkBuchanan
ismeanttoillustratethenegativeimpactoftechnologyontodayssociety.

Technology,specificallycomputationengines,distortseconomicequilibriumbyallowingthe
engineswiththebestcomputationalabilitytoacquirelowriskinvestments.Having
computationenginesavailableleadstoanincreaseinproductivity.However,thisincreasein
productivitydirectlycorrelateswithanincreaseofriskinessintheeconomy.Anincreasein
riskinesscanbeattributedtousingtoolssuchascomputationenginestohidebadassets.

Buchananalsoarguestheideaoffreeinformationsayingthosewhocreateitshouldbethe
oneswhogetcompensated.Thestructureoffreeinformationcurrentlyallowsforthosewho
manageandcreateuseforthedata(companiessuchasFacebookandGoogle)toget
compensated.ThisideaissimilartothenotionofGNPgrowth.WhileGNPmaygrow,those
whoinfluencethegrowthmaynotbenefitfromit.

Heproposespeoplewhoprovidedatashouldbecompensatedtopreventthebigcompanies
whoorganizesandusesthedatafromgettingcompensation.Thisimpliesashifttoan
utilitarianapproachwherecompensatingonefortheirdata(increasingthegoodofthe
individual)allowsforproducingautomatictoolsthatwouldhelpincreaseproductivity
(increasingthegoodofthewhole).Thisisincontrasttothecurrentstructurewherean
increaseinproductivity(increasingthegoodofthewhole)doesnotaffecttheindividualwho
providedthedata.Therefore,thegoodoftheindividualremainsconstant.