THE LIGHTHOUSE "Enlightening Ideas for Public Policy..." VOL. 2, ISSUE 30 August 7, 2000 Welcome to The Lighthouse, the e-mail newsletter of The Independent Institute, the non-partisan, public policy research organization <http://www.independent.org>. We provide you with updates of the Institute's current research, publications, events and media programs. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------- WILL THE INTERNET CURB GLOBAL REDISTRIBUTIONISM? The recent Group of Eight summit in Okinawa didn't produce unanimity, but it did give global redistributionists the opportunity to pledge their taxpayers' commitment to end global poverty. (Other G-8 countries balked at a French proposal to increase foreign aid to poor countries by 5 to 10 percent.) Significantly, however, Japan proposed to spend $15 billion of its own taxpayers' money to build the computer and Internet capabilities of developing countries. Although the United States has been embroiled in debate over Internet and e-mail privacy, it is important to keep in mind the overall liberating effects of the new information technology. Rather than abet government repression, à la Big Brother, individual liberty is likely to be advanced by the new technology, especially with advances in encryption, argues economist David R. Henderson. And although freedom does not necessarily guarantee the emergence of prosperity, one tends to reinforce the other -- another tendency likely to be accelerated by encryption. If this scenario plays out, perhaps the Japanese taxpayer (and taxpayers worldwide) will not have to labor much longer under the politics of redistributionism, as it becomes more apparent that the roads to freedom and prosperity are parallel. "Does this story sound like science fiction?" asks Henderson. "It certainly does. But, as my colleague Pat Parker put it recently, 'If when you try to predict what may happen in ten years, your predictions sound like science fiction, you may well be wrong. But if your predictions ten years out *don't* sound like science fiction, you are certain to be wrong.'" See "Information Technology as a Universal Solvent for Removing State Stains" by David R. Henderson (THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW, Spring 2000), at http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink2-30-8.html. -------------------------------------------------------------
