Intratextual comments by Bruce Leier
> I'm not sure whether people are misreading this
by taking it out of
> context--I was responding to Ed Weick's concern
that very ordinary, humble
> people could get targeted as "capitalists",
certainly not to argue that Bill
> Gates is just doing the same kind of thing as an
independent plumber in a
> battered old van. He most certainly ain't. How
the plumber thinks of himself
> is not really relevant to this issue either. No
doubt the peasant farmer who
> were liquidated in the old Soviet Union did not
think of themselves as
> exploiters of the poor. The point is that the
leaders of the revolution
> identified them as such.
To my mind the purpose and the methods are both
key to what capitalism is; so what the plumber
thinks is very relevant.
>
> Just to clear up one other point, in his
original posting Ed Weick mentioned
> MacDonald and Starbucks franchisees. From what I
know I wouldn't be inclined
> to put these people in the same class as "mom
and pop" stores.
I agree; franchisees are just middle managers for
the corpos with higher risk.
>
> Victor Milne
