The unstructured development of information technology may accentuate gaps between haves and have-nots. Life choices for some people may be enhanced while they are diminished for others. There is a strong libertarian tendency among many enthusiasts of information technology which assumes that the growing perfection of markets through the internet will solve the problems of democratic governance. It is true that markets enhance choice - but they provide more choices for those who can enter the game with a large pile of chips than for those who cannot. Besides inequality of opportunity, there is also a question of public spaces and public goods.
Public goods are non-exclusive.
Once produced, no one can be kept from sharing in their consumption, and one person's consumption does not diminish that of others. This ability to exclude lays the basis for a private market relationship and diminishes one of government's traditional roles, the provision of public goods. Highways, including the information highway, can be turned into toll roads. Indeed, one can imagine a situation where information technology could produce automated pricing systems that could privatise many public spaces such as roads and parks. Alternatively, one can imagine deliberate government actions to preserve public spaces and to widen the access to information technology across social and organisational barriers.