Web 2.0 Acid Test

I waited all day Thursday for the New York Times to call me.

I felt that Thomas Friedman's op-ed piece on the 11th was disingenuous in claiming that America's economic might was due solely to its "really flexible, really open economy" which tolerated creative destruction. I wanted to remind him and the editors that the European settlers had encountered a vast land rich in natural resources. If they found indigenous people living on the best land, they ejected them. In short, our success is also due to the wealth we have commandeered or stumbled upon, not only to economic policy.

I could have registered my opinion instantaneously by logging in to NYTimes.com and leaving a comment. But I really wanted an editor to read it and say, "Hey, this is interesting. My readers may want to think about that." If that had happened, they would have called me. But they didn't, and I have not posted my riposte, at least not until here and now.

That, I guess, is the litmus test of Web 2.0-ness. Is it important to you to put your opinion out on the Internet, or is it important to have an imprimatur? If, like me, you want the imprimatur, you may want to read Joel Stein's column '25 Things' we really don't need in today's LA Times.