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Dream Forge Demo 1995 February
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1995-02-01
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AWAKENINGS: Amazing Greed
by Dave Bealer
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The 1980s were known as "The Decade of Greed." From where
I'm sitting the nineties haven't been doing too badly on the greed
score, either. High technology has brought new forms of greed, as if
any more were needed.
Shareware was the new marketing revolution of the eighties. The
"try before you buy" plan was a great way of doing things in the era
of buggy commercial software (anyone know when that era will end?),
plus it allowed software authors to release their products without
the usual barriers to entry in the traditional retail marketplace.
The tandard estimate is that one in ten people who uses a shareware
package regularly actually pays the registration fee. Still, many
authors felt that 10% of something was far better than 100% of
nothing (since they lacked the funds to go the standard retail
route).
The truth is that far less than 10% of shareware authors ever made
any real money from their products. Of course, not all the blame can
be laid at the feet of greedy users. There are plenty of authors
trying to collect hefty shareware fees for a simple program that the
average high school programming student could whip up in an hour or
two (and claim a patent on the algorithm, to boot). These twerps are
no doubt surprised when the user community isn't willing to fork over
$25 for their latest 50 lines of spaghetti code - Mortimer Nerd's
idea of programming perfection.
Not that high tech greed is the only thing going -- good old
fashioned low tech greed is still in fashion. Gambling is becoming
legalized in more and more states. Why? Taxes. States and localities
love anything new they can tax. Vice taxes are especially popular
because few will argue the amounts charged. Nuisance taxes (a
redundancy if ever there was one) are also popular, especially
nuisance taxes on vices. Goverment may one day tax violence on TV -
will it be called a Miami Vice Tax?
Atlantic City now charges a $2/day parking tax for each car
parked at all the casino/hotels in the city. The smarter hotel
operators (e.g.the folks who run the Sands) are eating this tax
themselves and still offering free parking to their customers.
This begs the question of what's next? Tax meters on hookers?
Copyright 1995 Dave Bealer, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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