Re: Third World Man

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 9:41 PM 8/21/95, Adam Shostack wrote:
>        Strong cryptography is needed for a secure information
>infrastructure.  If American companies aren't allowed to build secure
>infrastrucure, then parts of the infrastrucure will move overseas, as
>insurance, liability, and deployment costs rise for a badly secured
>network.
>
>        This issue will not cause the USA to become a third world
>nation, but it will contribute to large institutions moving their data
>processing out.  Tim, you've talked a lot about how companies will
>move data centers out of the US to avoid 'expensive' laws; do you see
>the ITARs as being in a different catagory, than say, the laws on
>reporting a bankruptcy?

Sure, they will move some parts of their operations to other jurisdictions.
They already are, for various reasons. Most large U.S. companies are of
course "multinationals."

I didn't cite examples, and won't now. (But you can imagine a few of the
many successful U.S. companies: Sun, Intel, Microsoft, SGI, Qualcomm,
Altera, Merck, and on and on.)

I am not saying that things are as they should be. And I am not a U.S.
chauvinist. I really don't care which countries do well, so long as my
investments continue to do well.

My point was that hyperbole about the U.S. being on the verge of becoming a
Third World nation is wrong. As Sternlight might put it, "arrant nonsense."

--Tim May

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