Surplus from Google to Burning Man

Here's a link to a piece describing an interesting study that set out to place a value on our newfound search capabilities (using Google as the test engine, of course).

At face value, this piece demonstrates the way that Internet companies like Google really do make the world better for individuals.

At a somewhat deeper level though, the lesson applies far beyond Google. "Surplus" is a critical concept to understanding the miracle of market economies. Corporations always generate positive externalities, or benefits that they are unable to monetize. Those benefits operate to improve the lot of their customers, along with their workers, neighbors, competitors, and society at large.

The extent to which people miss this basic message is astounding. A few years ago at Burning Man, I found myself in a public debate with a Marxist grad student who exemplified the phrase "missing the point."

My Marxist sparring partner  argued--quite eloquently--that Burning Man's "gift culture" was a preferable alternative to our consumerist society and our focus on excess. I suggested that our economy generate surplus, rather than excess, and that Burning Man was a celebration of that surplus.  After all, who but the members of a wealthy society can take a week off for a party in the desert? (Not to mention investing several years into studying Marxist approaches toward gift cultures).

Articles and studies like this one always bring me back to this simple, basic truth. Google is hardly the only "not evil" corporation. Our entire economy is structured so that corporations do much more good than harm. We all benefit from the externalities that they generate.