Tuesday, September 28, 2004
A Natural Aristocracy
Michelle Malkin has an interesting post on the composition of the blogosphere. It is a response to an LA Time’s piece attacking the in-egalitarian nature of blogs. The author complains about both the commercialization of blogs and the power of a “charmed circle of bloggers.”
Welcome to Economics 101. If you can make money on something, and it isn’t outlawed by the government, people will make money. If the writing is compromised, than readers can always read other blogs. There are thousands of blogs because the only cost of starting and maintaining a simple blog is the opportunity cost of the blogger’s time. With low start up costs and differentiated products the blogosphere comes very close to a text book definition of monopolistic competition. Ignore the word monopoly here, this the type of market that is meant when people describe the free market. It is a good thing.
And if you have thousands of people reading and writing blogs some are going to do it better than others. A few bloogers will develop blogs interesting enough to attract large numbers of readers. If you will allow me to steal from John Adams, a natural aristocracy will develop. This is also a good thing.
Hopefully, with time and hard work, this blog can someday join their ranks.
Welcome to Economics 101. If you can make money on something, and it isn’t outlawed by the government, people will make money. If the writing is compromised, than readers can always read other blogs. There are thousands of blogs because the only cost of starting and maintaining a simple blog is the opportunity cost of the blogger’s time. With low start up costs and differentiated products the blogosphere comes very close to a text book definition of monopolistic competition. Ignore the word monopoly here, this the type of market that is meant when people describe the free market. It is a good thing.
And if you have thousands of people reading and writing blogs some are going to do it better than others. A few bloogers will develop blogs interesting enough to attract large numbers of readers. If you will allow me to steal from John Adams, a natural aristocracy will develop. This is also a good thing.
Hopefully, with time and hard work, this blog can someday join their ranks.
