spencer_ante@webmagazine.com wrote:
I think any type of surveillance system is cause for concern--whether it originates from the government or IBM. Lastly, I think you overestimate the amount of wiggle room folks have in the labor market, which is never perfect.
I remember standing beside a farmer in Buttfuck, North Dakota, as we watched an antique roadster cruise by. He said, "They don't make 'em like that, anymore.", to which I replied, "Yeah, and they probably never did." I have nothing against the 'standard phrases' being dug out of the back of the closet and thrown in the general direction of 'the usual suspects', every now and again, for the purposes of verifying that this or that list member has done his or her Cpunx 'required reading. {Ayn Rand, Snow Crash, Applied Cryptology, Tales from the Crypt...) However, I sometimes wonder if some of the 'freeh-market' advocates on the list, after reading '1984', didn't say to themselves, "Gee, I think Winston should have just moved somewhere else." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz Your license, please? Debra Nutall of Memphis, Tenn. thought she was an American success story when she turned her hair-braiding skills into a business and got off welfare two years ago. But now the Tennessee state cosmetology board is trying to close down her Memphis shop in a licensing dispute. "They call us bootleg braiders in the papers and it hurts," Nutall told reporter Paul Shepard of the Associated Press. "We pay our taxes and make this as professional as we can. Would they rather have me back on welfare?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Allow me to point out that there is no longer anywhere 'to go' in order to avoid Big Brother, Little Brother, Invisible Brother... You can move to Mars, but you're still responsible for paying US taxes, so God help you if you ever come back (or if 'they' come and get you).
What happens when most of the Fortune 500 starts eavesdropping on company email? (Incidentally, I think that most working people--unlike the digerati--are not in a position to launch their own company.) It reminds me of the drug testing issue. Sure, it sucks and may even be unconstitutional, but that hasn't stopped a lot of companies from doing it.
*Starts* eavesdropping? Where you been, Bubba? When a Company has the 'right' to wiretap you, search you, and make you piss in a jar, as well as having their own armed forces monitoring you and patrolling your workplace, the main difference between them and the government is that the corporation usually doesn't pretend to allow you to vote. Like the ads for the Pizza chain, 'Brother' doesn't come in the 'small' size, anymore. We have Big Brother, Bigger Brother, and All That Can Eat You Brother. TruthMonger