Government, police and change
The French Government is launching cyberdouane, a new service of the national customs “to fight against internet trafficking (drugs, counterfeit products, tobacco, weapons and ammunition, artwork etc)”.
“Finally” I hear, “the government is responding to today’s threats”. Then the astute reader will stumble on the headcount of this new unit: eight analysts, and seven investigators. That’s a grand total of 15 people fighting against internet traffic in one of the most wired countries in the world. A bit surreal isn’t it?
It’s like for crime. How many resources are dedicated to financial crime (who is now costing billions to taxpayers all around the world) vs street crime? Why is it acceptable to have thousands of policemen running after illegal immigrants when they only cost a fraction of what a trader can lose in a couple of months?
Society is changing way too fast these days, and governments have a hard time adapting to the pace of innovation, not only the technological one.
February 10th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Very good point, Laurent - a drop in the ocean. I always wonder how governements will cope with the amounts of data once P2P will be illegal in the EU. The content industry will outsource the cost of legal actions to the state and the taxpayer instead of fostering new business models and innovation.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:17 am
[…] the example I was giving in an earlier post: why is it acceptable to have thousands of policemen run after illegal immigrants when they only […]