Raise the Hammer

Mr.Meister, I would also abolish the FDA and Health Canada, thereby decreasing the costs that currently force drug companies to invest in only sure things, such as Vytorin, which was nothing more than two established drugs packaged into one formulation. However, this new freedom would make trust between individuals and the drug companies all the more important, thereby helping those companies with long track records of product safety and effectiveness become the consumers first choice. In effect, trust would replace patents and this would allow good companies to charge a premium for the products they offer.

Companies that deal in pure information, such as software firms would need to switch their models more towards service and consulting. However, since leaders in software innovation usually become famous in the community they serve, developing new types of software would only serve to increase one's reputation and therefore the fees they could charge their clients.

However, just because information is not protected by government, does not necessarily mean it is accessible to the public. Secrets can and will still be kept and this will only increase as companies strive to protect their intellectual assets from competitors. Ideas such as quantum encryption and alike are on the horizon, so the death of secrecy is not in the cards quite yet.

Overall, increasing the speed at which ideas spread throughout the world is a good thing. It means that there is less waste of capital worldwide, more innovation and cheaper products for consumers. Instead of limited, highly profitable markets, the world will become a massively more diverse, lower margin market, but one in which profits increase at a much faster pace than currently is the case. Success will be based on constant innovation and not the current model that Microsoft has been living off the past fifteen years or so.