Ray Evans Harrell wrote:
[snip]
> Indians prize family and loyalty above saving a few pennies for
> gas.
[snip]
I believe (until proven otherwise...) that most of the
damage The Invisible Hand does to us is the result of
it trying to squeeze the last little bit of blood
out of each of us turnips -- i.e., that the road to
hell is paved with the logic of pursuing the
lowest price (lowest wage, etc.), as opposed to
a fair price (wage, etc.).
But in a world in which all human relations have been
reduced to exchange relations, doesn't is sound
pathetic for someone to say: "Buy my nuclear power
plant even though is costs $100,000,001 instead
of my competitor's plant which costs
$100,000,000, because mine is built by
people who care about their work whereas my
comptetitor's is built by people who
cower in fear that they will lose their job
if they don't work mandatory voluntary
overtime to show their good attitude?
To let such considerations affect the
procurement process leads in the long run to total
disorientation and inability to function,
since if we are irrational about $1, the next
thing we know we may be irrational about $2,
then $4 (it's called "The Domino Theory")....
And the next thing you know, workers might
start demanding better working conditions because
they don't know their place any more....
I remember a time, back around 1973, when
air fares were pretty much proportionate to
distance travelled. The company I worked for
was already modernizing, however: They stopped
sending non-executive employees first class
*after* I had been sent on a couple business
trips under the old policy. The first time
I was sent coach class, I remember I decided to
pay the difference myself. It was a trip
from Detroit to Baltimore. The difference was
$9. Yes, I know, $9 was a small fortune
in those days, equivalent to the diffence
between one passenger paying $200 and the passenger
in the next seat having paid $600 (if not $1,200),
today. But there is a difference: The difference
in price back they was based on a difference
in what you got for your money. Today the
difference is based on the highest price a computer
program figures out each seat can
be sold for, even though what the money buys
in all cases -- from the $200 to the $1,200 -- is
the same. As we saw at the beginning,
this is Universal Reason Manifesting Itself in
World History, because each of us
pays the lowest price for everything
(even that $1,200 seat where we squeeze next to
the dude who bought an identical seat for
$200 because he bought his seat a few hours
earlier or later)....
Who says that our Emperor Dubya I's new clothes are
not opaque (--I meant: Made by the lowest cost
producer)?
\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
