CAPITALIST WASTE
Greg Kennedy's objections to business
competition recalls the argument made by the two
British Fabians, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, during the
1930s. They assailed the number of different fountain
pen brands and called it capitalist waste. Under
socialism, there would be only one brand of fountain
pen. The "savings" would go to the people, etc, etc.
And so, the Soviets had fountain pens and only
adopted ball-points in the final years of their imperium.
Of course, one had all of those fountain-pen ink
makers and the factories that produced bottles for the
fountain-pen ink and the companies that provided the
rubber sacs for the ink in the fountain pens, and the
factories that produced the various penpoints for the
fountain pens and the foundries that provided the
metal levers for the fountain pens and the cor****ations
that produced ink removers for spills on paper while writing.
Ai, yah. There will always be types like our
Greg who will decry the marketplace and imagine
that a benevolent regime will make decisions that
are more rational.
I will post an article that I wrote a year or so
before the collapse of the Soviet Union that appeared
in the old NY City Tribune as well as Glasnost News
& Review dealing with the single-brand-fountain-pen-no-
capitalist-waste type of economic logic. After all, the
Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Khmer Rouge Cambodia
(its leaders eliminated capitalist waste nearly in toto)
and current North Korea were and, in the case of the
latter country, are still run on that logic.
Our Greg: always looking to blame someone other
than himself for the life he has led in that Indiana factory.
Yours, Larry Parr
help bot wrote:
> On May 9, 8:30 pm, "parrthe...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
" <parrthe...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > > Note to imbecilic "projectionists": my view is
> > > that chess is a horrible *waste* of the human
> > > intellect. As such, the weaker you may be
>
> > When you can't excel at something, put it down. By his own admission
> > the Indiana Kid coulda been a contendah if only he had lived in
> > Brooklyn like Bobby.
>
>
> It must have been the term "imbecilic" that drew
> Mr. Parr in, like a fly to rotting flesh. One might
> just as well have called the man by name, so
> fitting is this term.
>
>
> > "Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find
> > outside of an advertising agency," sneered novelist Raymond Chandler.
>
>
> Indeed, while I read /every day/ about the many
> virtues of capitalism and the evils of disliked
> Commie dictators, the sad truth is that there are
> evils among us, among capitalists. I noted long
> ago the fact of needless duplications, such as
> two "struggling" gas stations on nearby corners,
> each of them splitting the limited business, half
> and half. Here in the Midwest, nearly every
> corner "drugstore" has a copycat rival situated
> kitty-corner, again splitting the business such
> that each store may struggle to make a decent
> profit, their respective employees, naturally being
> less productive in this situation, are paid less to
> suit.
>
> But what really galls is the way that our federal
> government is set up. Nearly everything seems
> to revolve more around the two-party war that is
> ongoing, than about any other issues which may
> pertain. It reminds me a little of the Hatfields and
> the McCoys -- two clans who fought for years
> over the right way to face one's Knights on the
> chess board (or some other "crucial" issue).
>
> The fact remains that from where I stand, the
> very idea that one's chess rating is indicative of
> self-worth tells a very revealing tale about these
> imbecilic projectionists; about how they think
> (or rather, are simply unable to think). From my
> perspective, getting roped into an obsession with
> the game of chess reveals a character flaw; it
> shows an inability to put life into its proper
> perspective. It reminds me of the poor fellow
> whose last act in life was to warn viewers, on
> camera, to not dare try what he and he alone
> had done and was capable of doing: filming
> grizzlies with no protection from being mauled
> and eaten. That was his last act because, well,
> you can probably guess. To such imbeciles I
> have but one word: bear mace. Okay, that's
> two words... .
>
>
> -- help bot
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