From: jamesd@echeque.com
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 19:30:29 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: RFD: Developing Nations and crypto (based on excertp from Edupag
Message-ID: <199606290859.BAA25535@dns1.noc.best.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 09:48 AM 6/26/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote:
> Sadly, most developing countries (Third World, LDCs, whatever) have
> repressive governments of various stripes...few are libertarian. Several
> have embraced computer technology, but primarily as an instrument of social
> control.

This is true, but basically back to front.  Certain common forms of repressive
economic policy cause poverty.  From time to time political convulsions change
this policy for a long period.  If the period is several decades, development
follows.

In the past, popular support for these repressive policies was vast and 
overwhelming, and once in place they could only be changed by fairly 
murderous dictatorships, for example South Korea and Chile.

Popular support for these policies is still substantial, but has steadily 
diminished.

In my opinion this diminishing support is largely the result of 
improved international communications.  When people in poor countries 
discover that their social order is radically different from that in 
similar rich countries, they are apt to vote for institutions similar 
to those in the rich country -- the JR Ewing affect.

In short, the third world it has become considerably easier to create
liberty without the need to massacre real, suspected, and imaginary
communists.



>Singapore is an example of a country that jumped from former colonial
>status, surrounded by relatively poor (GNP) countries, to the "Information
>Age." And what is the result? What our own Sandy Sandfort dubbed
>"Disneyland with a Death Penalty." No spitting, no cursing, no long hair,
>no "Wall Street Journal," no pornography, no Internet free access, no
>dissension. And smartcards track the movements of all Citizen-Units. Not an
>encouraging example.
>
>As for the comment that "they aren't bogged down in older ways of doing
>business, communicating, etc." Well, some of these "older ways" include:
>
>- concepts about the ownership of property and transfers of title
>
>- contracts, and the ability to make and enforce them
>
>- understanding of the Uniform Commercial Code (the descendent of the "Law
>Merchant" which Western societies have embraced for centuries)
>
>- a stable middle class, solid educational facilities, and a tradition of
>business and technical achievement
>
>(These are all things which are missing in many Third World countries, for
>whatever reasons. Even in many Second World countries, such as the former
>U.S.S.R., and these lacks are making the development of modern economic
>systems problematic.)
>
>Certainly some small nations--perhaps island nations--can essentially jump
>directly to an "information based economy." The Cayman Islands and several
>other examples come to mind.
>
>I find it harder to believe that a _large_ nation is likely to make such a
>transition.
>
>--Tim May
>
>Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
>We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
>---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
>Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
>tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
>W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
>Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.
>"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
>
>
>
>
>
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