http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FB0EhPM ... r_embedded

The video, "Would You Give Up The Internet For 1 Million Dollars?" from The Fund for American Studies has been making its way all around the blogosphere this past week. Stossel blogged about it, as did Peter Robinson, Dan Mitchell, and others. What do you think?

Would You Give Up The Internet For 1 Million Dollars?

I don't think I would. One million isn't enough for me to retire and my job would be nearly impossible without it. Legal research is pretty much only available online (you could use the books, but no one is going to pay me for the extra time that would take, plus my state is no longer publishing their opinions official reporters). My clients also require me to have email. For Federal Courts I am required to e-file.

Work aside... I think I would have a hard time giving up the internet entirely. I think I could give up the time-wasting random surfing pretty easily, but I do my banking and investing online; I shop on Amazon whenever possible; and I'm not even sure where I'd start trying to look up information anymore (Do bound Encyclopedia's still exist).

So no. I would not. I might for enough money to retire extremely lavishly (read: Bill Gates money) where I can pay someone to do the things on the internet for me.

Thinking about this (and the premise of the video) more.... I'm not sure how much I would PAY for internet access. I don't know the exact amount, but I don't think I would pay an huge amount. I think paying more would give me more incentive to find alternatives to the internet than getting paid a bunch of money to use the internet would. This doesn't seem logical, but that is how I feel.

Also, I think if the price dramatically increased, many people would give it up and the market would cause people to create new alternatives.

$1 million would probably be enough to retire for life. Except then what would I do with my time if I couldn't access the internet? Luckily, it's a nonexistent dilemma since there is nobody going around offering anybody money to not use the internet. Well, I guess many employers offer that deal , but only for short time periods.

I'd suggest we look at this a little differently.

If most Americans put so much value on the Internet then it begs the question of "Why?" I suspect the reason why is because it has improved our quality of life by making things more efficient and less expensive. That's essentially a productivity improvement.

So, in the 15-20 year existence of the Internet (I was using it in the early 80s but we're talking about widespread public use here), it has apparently added around $1,000,000 per person in value to the 300,000,000 Americans. That's $300 trillion in value Americans expect to get for the rest of their life and that value has been built up over about 20 years.

If we assume a 30 year average remaining life span then the Internet is worth about $10 trillion a year to Americans collectively. Guess what, GDP has grown by about $9 trillion in the last 20 years.

Could it be? Could the productivity improvements from the internet explain most of our economic prosperity over that period?

Yeah, my numbers are rough but I think it's an interesting question.

True, but how well would you be able to run your business without the internet? I'm genuinely curious. I can't imagine a business running without it right now.

Yes, because with 1 million dollars, I'd be able finally hook up that individually wrapped bacon I've been dreaming about.

I imagine you could find that on Amazon. . .

Oh crap. Never mind.

There are tons of small businesses out there with no internet presence at all (other than what's on google maps, yelp, etc) or a minimal website with nothing more than an address and a couple pictures. That said, I think that most businesses would be enhanced by an internet presence. Though in the context of this discussion, the question is if they would be enhanced by one million dollars worth.

I'm not talking about having an internet presence. That I have no trouble believing. I'm wondering about how to actually DO business without using the internet at all. Ordering supplies, email, general research, and so on and so on.

I would let the internet go in a heart beat and put some of the money into my offline business.