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To: TLindt who wrote (17776)	3/19/2001 11:33:30 PM
From: Estimated Prophet	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20297

Tom, it is a great idea, and one of the most effective "expenditures" of tax money that any of us can imagine. But the market is not the same as the railroads, big dams, or any of the other great public spending projects. THose markets were ones in which the market failed to provide an efficient result. This is one in which the markets will likely be efficient. I don't see any evidence that the free market has failed. Consumer reluctance has to be overcome, I will grant you that point...but free markets do that all the time. ATMs are a good example. You could make the same argument that the government should have subsidized the development of ATM networks, because in the beginning, they didn't catch on quickly. But with time, and no government intervention that I know of (I don't claim perfect knowledge on this), ATMs became verrry popular. Thus, it is nothing more than the speed of adoption that you are talking about and if you introduce government promotion of digital distibution, don't you risk overstimulating it, or at a minimum spending a bunch of government resources that might give a better return elsewhere? BWTFDIK.