My latest Mises piece is up today and it gives a fairly detailed account of Korean economic policies that have created various technologies: Asian Tiger or Asian Kitten?
A few thoughts:
The piece was basically a rejoinder to the pie-in-the-sky posts over at Wired magazine, Slashdot, Ars, Engadget, and Cringely… basically anyone who has a hard-on for fat pipes at any cost.
PC bangs aren’t that cool, or rather, the “wow” factor quickly fades after a couple weeks. There are a couple of big reasons why they are so popular:
- it gets kids out of the house and away from parents (whom most will live with even when they are married)
- in some ways it is cheaper to join the local PC bang like Westerners join big gyms, because it easier to have someone else manage the weights, or in this case, the plethora of software packages/licenses. After all, there is a reason why millions of Bowflexes, ab crunchers, thigh masters go unused each year…
- hang out with your friends in a neutral area. Considering that Korean’s (like the Japanese) have no childhoods because they spend every breathing minute in school for 12+ years, PC bangs are basically a sanctuary for many of them
I’ll discuss more on that particular issue at another time.
So, yes, technologically speaking this place is over-rated, over-hyped (dare I even discuss useful webservices?).
That is not to say that it is a bad, place — quite the contrary. Just not a fairytale world with unicorns, pink dragons, and HAL.
I’d also like to thank DJC for the WSJ link about stiff regulation and Joe for the link on foreign investment numbers. And a big high five to Burger King Marcus for editing it up all nicely.