... Intel 486 chip? It was blazing fast in 1987. It sported a premium price to match--$750--and ran PCs costing $4,000 (about $7,000 in today's dollars). Where are those 486-class chips today? They're running BlackBerrys, Treos and the like and sell for $25. The flip side of Moore's Law is the reason China will surpass the U.S. next year in Internet users. This is what happens when decent PCs and handhelds can be had for less than $500. Amid the piles of gushing words written about the Internet during the 1990s, I recall none about cheap tech's lifting poorer countries out of poverty. Now it's a fact, yet we're of two minds about this. We delight that so many lives are being improved, but we're not always thrilled with the sudden new competition. John Kerry cynically plays the offshoring card. It's cynical because, first, as a senator, Kerry was a free-trader ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now