<nettime> Edge 71: Wake-Up Call for Europe Tech - FrankSchirrmacher

[Carl Guderian <carlg@vermilion-sands.com>]

I thought Kai Krause's comments were the most cogent, but the discussion
neglected to mention a couple of aspects of the dot.economy that leave
people over here cold: 

1) New Economy apostles insist that government subsidies for
infrastructure, rent-controlled apartments, and a large safety net are
"obstacles" to that great and shiny future Americans are presumably living
in right now. "Come on! Slash taxes on business, and maybe drop the
personal income tax a point or two, but make those lazy bastards work or
starve. It'll be great! You can't have our fiscal perpetual motion machine
without a frictionless economy! Get with the Clinton/Blair/Schroeder
program!" Thanks, really, but we'll just take a closer look at the U.S. 
dot.economy before making irreversible changes. Maybe Europeans would
rather have some of those IPO goodies without ridiculous rents and
netslavery. We'll certainly try. Those way-cool ICE trains, GSM phones,
and rich cultural scene of Cologne exist BECAUSE the government, speaking
more or less for the people as well as business, took an active role in
industry. 

2) Media blowjobs for dot.com billionaires and their paid intellectuals
get old fast. "Wow! Steve Case and Jeff Bezos invited me backstage after
COMDEX because I'm their favorite groupie! There's fancy beer and sushi,
and who knows?...<wink>" If rock stars-cum-philosophers like these
Dockers-clad, Hootie-&-the-Blowfish-playing whitebreads are the public
face of the Way New Economy, then I'll throw my Vaio out the window and
dust off the old Smith-Corona. It's not that the European
cyber-entrpreneur scene is free of celebrity culture, but at least there's
more critical thinking. Thank "Bob"  for the Nina Brink/World Online
damn-near-close-to-insider-trading debacle here in the Netherlands. She'll
get away with it, but the episode puts things in perspective for us over
here. 

As I recall, Jaron Lanier was outfoxed by those wily French. He wanted
that VPL Power Glove to become reality so badly that he signed over
controlling interest to a French consortium that, in the end, tossed him
aside. Old age and treachery beat youth and energy every time. 

Carl,

Holding out for 4th, 5th, and Nth cultures?

>From: John Brockman <brockman@edge.org>
>To: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net
>Subject: <nettime> Edge 71: Wake-Up Call for Europe Tech - Frank Schirrmacher
>Date: Mon, Jul 10, 2000, 09:41 AM
>Sender: owner-nettime-l@bbs.thing.net




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