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11/04/09(Wed)14:52 No.6566461  Economics doesn't work that way OP.
There is several ways to address this issue - I'm going to go the non-deadweight loss argument.
The
United States is the only market to which consumers pay $400 for Adobe
photoshop (just using photoshop as an example). In most other
countries, pirated copies of software, movies, music, video games, etc.
- are outwardly sold in stores just as legal copies are sold in
Wal-Mart. The only reason software/entertainment costs what it does is
because U.S. markets are willing to pay that much for them. All fine
and good.
However, in economics, we know that advancements in
technology advance the production-possibility frontier. Changes must be
inevitably made, but it still increases production and lowers prices
for the consumer. For example, with the birth of the internet and other
communication technologies, firms are able to outsource customer
service to India and the like so that their services and products can
be cheaper to the consumer. Did someone have to lose their job? Yes.
However, is the majority now better off? Yes. In a free market society,
this pressure breeds innovation, ie. "we can't make money this way
anymore, time to figure out something new". That "something new"
benefits society. |
