Entertainment Protectionism Doesn't Create Jobs, It Destroys Them
from the welcome-to-econ-101 dept
Reader Darren sent in a link to an "opinion" piece in the UK's Independent by Stephen Garrett, a managing director of a TV production house that apparently makes some popular UK TV shows (he names Spooks, with which I am personally unfamiliar). The article is basically no different than any of the thousands of poorly thought out and badly argued demands from entertainment industry execs for government protectionism in the face of the giant "internet threat." Garrett goes through all of these mistakes pretty early on: comparing file sharing to the theft of physical property, twisting basic logic around to suggest that ISPs bear the responsibility of stopping file sharing (rather than, say, the entertainment companies learning to adjust their business model in the face of a changing marketplace), and playing the old and easily debunked ripple effects card in discussing the "damages" done.But rather than going through those same old tired arguments again, this seemed like a good opportunity to take on a later argument he makes, which I've heard from others as well:
At a time of economic downturn, saving jobs and securing economic activity is more important than ever. Investment in new forms of bringing entertainment to the public depends on legitimate sales of material, whilst lost opportunities of innovation is the tab picked up by those who do pay for content for those who refuse to do so.This, like Garrett's earlier points, shows a fundamental misunderstanding of economics. Saving jobs and securing activity is not more important than ever if those jobs and that economic activity are inefficient, unnecessary or hinder other important economic activity from taking place. Historically, almost every example of government protectionism has been to protect exactly those types of jobs and economic activity, and the end result is disastrous. Rather than adapting to changes in the market, the protected industry holds onto the past, while those industries in other countries adapt, evolve and improve. In the end, the "protected" industry simply can't compete, the jobs are lost anyway, and it's much more difficult for the new industry in those countries to grow and catch up to foreign competitors.
Garrett's suggestion of special protectionism in the entertainment industry in the UK is exactly the wrong solution for the industry and would lead to many more problems down the road. I would hope that people in the government in charge of deciding this stuff would understand this -- but so far, the UK's Culture Secretary has shown himself to have difficulty grasping some basic economic realities, so don't be surprised to see him buy into this sort of argument.
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Filed Under: entertainment industry, protectionism, stephen garrett
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Spooks
Apparently the brits don't think we know what a spook is.
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Re: Spooks
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case in point
rational people: dear car makers. you need to raise your mpg, lower your emissions and start looking to alternative fuels in order to compete.
govt: nuh-uh! their lobbyists pay us well!
*fast forward five years*
govt: um. excuse us, rational folks? will you please pay to bail out the american automotive industry? we could really use your help because we were stupidly protecting them. kthxbye!
m3mnoch.
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Saving jobs and securing activity is not more important than ever...
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Re: Saving jobs and securing activity is not more important than ever...
...Protectionism Doesn't Create Jobs, It Destroys Them
m3mnoch.
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Re: Saving jobs and securing activity is not more important than ever...
Which part of the fact that the jobs will get destroyed either way did you miss? And, the fact that by going with protectionism, you make it almost guaranteed that the eventual shakeout is worse than if you just let the industry evolve?
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Re: Re: Saving jobs and securing activity is not more important than ever...
We put more and more sticks underneath to hold it up, while the weight keeps piling up on top. Eventually, we can't keep up, and the whole thing comes crashing down, even worse than it would have been in the first place.
The same shortsightedness that got us here is what's going to make the crash even worse.
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Re: Re: Re: Saving jobs and securing activity is not more important than ever...
in the case of the entertainment industry fighting file sharing, it's more like playing chicken with a train.
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It is not at all clear why the above term was used in connection with the views expressed by a content creator/provider.
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Re:
Because he was asking for protectionist policies to protect that industry.
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Hasn't the US been successful in protecting its agricultural sector through outrageous protectionist policies? The end result has been disastrous only for other countries, not the US.
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Re:
Hasn't the US been successful in protecting its agricultural sector through outrageous protectionist policies? The end result has been disastrous only for other countries, not the US.
Actually, I'd argue that the end result has been pretty damn disastrous for the US as well, though not all of the impact is evident just yet.
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Re: Farm Protectionism
Mike wrote:
Considering those farm policies have been in place for much of the last century, when do you think the impact is going to hit?
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As for saving jobs through the protectionism particular to the IP sector, it has never held up against even the most basic research. Jobs go where cheap labor lives. IP concentrates money in old ideas far beyond their use and prohibits young ideas from growing up out of the topsoil.
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