These monopolies allow multinational corporations to price their goods and services many times the marginal cost for their production, and for goods and services which can be digitized these prices can be a thousand times their marginal cost. And this is why Paul Romer(2), Dean Baker(3), Michael Kremer(4), Brian MacLean(5) and many other intelligent economists support, in principle, the governmental funding of research. And Paul Romer goes as far as to envision a 'public domain economics(6)' where nonrival goods (goods which can be used by everyone at the same time such as software or any accessible information on the Internet) would be available free to anybody who wants.

The Economics of Ideas(7)(8) and the Public Domain Economics are very far away from the brains of our current political leaders as US President George W. Bush reneges the Kyoto's environmental agreement and looks for increasing petroleum and nuclear resources, and as our Prime Minister Jean Chretien sells the idea to have Canada's natural resources fuel the United States engine.

But there is hope, and the fair globalization of ideas is happening! In fact, MIT President Charles M. Vest has announced that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will make the materials for nearly all its courses freely available on the Internet over the next ten years(9). This project is known as the MIT OpenCourseWare (MITOCW). At the press conference held last April 4th, President Vest has stated that "OpenCourseWare looks counter-intuitive in a market driven world. It goes against the grain of current material values. But it really is consistent with what I believe is the best about MIT. It is innovative. It expresses our belief in the way education can be advanced  by constantly widening access to information and by inspiring others to participate."

All MIT staff support this innovative initiative, and Professor John Lienhard has commented

"Why do I support OpenCourseWare? Last year, I posted my undergraduate heat transfer textbook on the web for no-charge distribution. It is a 700 page pdf file, fully hyperlinked, and also properly typeset. In the domestic book market, the cost for this book would be $85 for the hardback or $45 for the paperback. My aim, however, is to provide the knowledge to those who can't afford to buy the book. The book has been downloaded by users from around the globe."

We have lots of business speculators, and we have lots of bubbles in the financial and stock market. But in the middle of today's economic confusion created by our conventional leadership, we are definitely moving towards the Economics of Ideas and the Public Domain Economics.

References/endnotes

Relevant political and economics articles http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign

1. Globalizing our economies and manufacturing our justice, by Mario deSantis, March 31, 2001 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2001_300/desantis349/schmeiser_Monsanto.html

2. Paul Romer, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University http://www.stanford.edu/~promer/

3. Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research http://www.cepr.net/dbbio.htm

4. Michael Kremer, Harvard University http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/kremer/

5. MacLean's Economic Policy Page, by Brian K. MacLean, http://www.geocities.com/brian79/

6. The "Growth Illusion" vs. "New Growth Theory", Keith Rankin, 8 February 1998 http://www.ak.planet.gen.nz/~keithr/rf98_P_Romer.html

7. INNOVATION, INCREASING COMPLEXITY AND THE NEED FOR A NEW PARADIGM IN ECONOMICS, Bertin Martens, December 1995 http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CLEA/Reports/BM-InnovationComplexity.html

8. Economics of Ideas, Author Kevin Kelly on Paul Romer, http://hotwired.lycos.com/wired_online/4.06/romer/

9. Unprecedented step challenges 'privatization of knowledge', News release on MIT OpenCourseWare, April 4, 2001 http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2001/ocw.html