Re: Scarcity - and how capitalism solves it
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Re: Scarcity - and how capitalism solves it         

Group: alt.philosophy · Group Profile
Author: Sean
Date: Sep 5, 2008 20:55

What's scarce Fred is your own wisdom about such matters.

What's in abundance is your single minded obsession with your ideas about
the "beauty" of capitalism, whilst ignoring the real and growing negatives
of such a system devoid of human values and dare I say it Love and respect
for others.

Capitalism is a word. It never invented anything, nothing, and it never
produced anything.

A man invented the TV. Groups of men created the TV networks. Workers, real
men, laid the cable networks.

In all cases, individuals, sometimes in teams together, are who created and
invented these things.

Capitalism has done nothing of value here, except in your own head. and of
course the heads of others just as obsessed.

People were not surprisingly growing food, and inventing things like wheels,
and ships, and communication devices long before anyone conjured up the
capitalistic system, which btw unfolded gradually much like the birth of a
mule, and just as thick and ignorant.

Last point regarding your analogy. Yes, in the world of telecommunications,
one can get one picture of an event and split it into millions and deliver
it to your home at a convenient time of your choosing.

Now, let's hear you explain to the group here how you get a single grain of
rice and deliver that to millions at the same time where everyone gets
enough to eat , and I'll start paying attention.

And call you the Messiah as well.

Maybe you should start your own newgroup or blog, where likeminded folk can
listen to your wisdom. I fail to see what it has to do with philosophy, or
deeper thought and positive values for humanity as a whole, or for an
individual.

Farmers grow food. Carpenters build houses. Tailors make clothes.

What does a "capitalist" do? Nothing!

There is no such person, no such trade, it's just a word for a theory. It
isn't real.

Hope that helps someone.

"Fred Weiss" papertig.com> wrote in message
news:2900fd76-6581-4fc8-984c-17444e84df0d@m73g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
>I have been thinking about the (supposed) issue of "scarcity" as a
> result of my (fruitless) attempts to explain the issue to Tiny Tim.
>
> Watching the Forest Hills tennis matches on TV provided a wonderful
> example of how capitalism solves the problem.
>
> If you wanted to watch the match in person, it would probably be
> impossible now to obtain seats. There are just so many seats and there
> is no way to produce more. This is an example of scarcity. A genuine
> example of scarcity.
>
> So what does capitalism do.
>
> It invents television.
>
> Now millions, even 100's of millions, of people can watch the matches.
>
> For free, btw - or at most at the nominal cost of their pro rata cable/
> satellite fees.
>
> But it gets even better.
>
> Capitalism not only wants to make it possible for you to watch the
> matches from virtually any place in the world, but to do it at your
> convenience.
>
> So, it invents video taping - and now even digital recording with far
> greater capacity. In fact you can now go on your computer from, say,
> work and instruct your dvr to record a program in your absence.
>
> Now, anyone can watch the matches from virtually any place in the
> world at their convenience - for what amounts to pennies.
>
> So much for scarcity.
>
> This is why I asked Tiny Tim to study the history of capitalism over
> the last 100-200years. Because what has happened in
> telecommunications, in principle, has happened in innumerable other
> product categories - telecommunications perhaps being the most
> dramatic example. But the point being essentially the same.
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