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 corporations
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, " 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