Burning off the useless eaters

[Tim May]

On Thursday, May 1, 2003, at 04:08  AM, Thomas Shaddack wrote:
> IMHO, long-term psychical stress, so common in raging capitalism with
> nonexistent or weak safety nets - worrying about keeping/losing/finding
> job, fear of a longer-term illness that would cause you to lose job and
> medical insurance - has much worse effect than occassional exposure to 
> low
> levels of chemical contaminations or not-really-that-loud[1] sounds.

In a free society, nothing stops an employee from seeking a lower 
stress, less demanding, lower profit margin employer, lower-paying job. 
In America, these low-paid employees are called "public teachers."
>

> We often forget about psychological stress, resulting from the quest 
> for
> higher and higher "effectivity" and other factors of Holy Capitalism, 
> when
> evaluating situations. Communism was nothing starry, but when you kept
> your mouth shut up, you had time for yourself, for your family. My dad 
> was
> "nationalizing" electronics parts for me, from his workplace, which 
> helped
> (or maybe caused) me to learn electronics.

And our teachers in public schools are similarly free to not operate at 
their full potential, or even close to it, and yet be paid a moderate 
salary. They can even steal stuff the way your father did.

(But they'd better not do it in corporations such as the one I worked 
for: we fired their asses. No severance pay, and a blacklist from 
working in other companies. We told prospective employers of their 
thefts.)

> Many things were available
> without having to pay for them, which lowered barriers to entry. 
> Hightech
> books were cheaper.

Probably because they were either pirated or were rehashes/copies of 
Western books.

Not in all cases. I have a few Soviet physics and math texts written by 
some of the greats of Soviet physics and math. Printed on cheap paper, 
with the authors barely compensated, they were certainly cheap. And, of 
course, often prone to having ideology inserted by the commisars.

My first roommate in college was from Hong Kong. He had the Feynman 
Lectures printed on rice paper editions with the print bleeding 
through. Very inexpensive. Feynman, of course, saw no royalties. Which 
is OK, but understand that your country was operating as a Napster 
country.

> Schools had clubs for students with interests -
> chemistry, electronics, computers - the Regime needed to breed the next
> generation of skilled workers.

Do you think American schools do not have such clubs? I was in a dozen 
of them, and President of several.

> It had a lot of drawbacks as well - lack of
> material wealth was the most notable one - but it wasn't overly 
> difficult
> to partially compensate; you just had to be able to do things yourself.
>> From sewing clothes - if you were dissatisfied with what was 
>> available in
> stores, you got cloth and a sewing machine and made something yourself 
> -
> to electronics. If you were able to repair things - TVs,
> electroinstallations, plumbing - you were widely in demand and you had
> privileged access to scarce goods[2] for exchange for your services.
> Virtually everyone was a member of this "gray" economy; what you knew 
> was
> more important for your real social position than what you owned. 
> People
> were more creative - it was making life more comfortable. These skills 
> are
> vanishing as more and more people rely on money than on their own
> improvisation skills instead. The cities were gray and dull - but I
> sometimes doubt if a genuine grayness wasn't better than faked and 
> empty
> cheery colors of mass-produced advertising flooding the cities now. 
> People
> had time to read books; today they usually return from the job late, 
> too
> tired for anything more challenging than plopping down in front of a 
> TV.
> The unhappiness and resulting escapism mirrors in increased demand for
> drugs and amusement industry, quick and low-efforts ways to "get out".
> There was escapism before as well - but it was generally more creative;
> cottaging was very common, together with numerous kinds of other 
> hobbies.
> The change from active to passive leisure activities, the turn from 
> doing
> to consuming, disturbs me a lot.</RANT>

You seem to be pining for central control, for state subsidies, for 
communism.

I doubt you'll like what we have to offer on this list.

A pity. You seem like a reasonable, even nice, person. We've had some 
good exchanges in e-mail about language.

But your rant above says you would probably be happier under state 
socialism, which makes this list your absolute worse enemy.

Take care of yourself in whichever socialist paradise you can find. 
Albania is out, as of a few years ago....Vietnam is rapidly going free 
market...China is an industrial giant with a Politburo...perhaps you 
could try Myanmar?

> Remarkable percentage of local population thinks fondly about the Old 
> Days
> where there was no rat-race, when you didn't live in fear you will get 
> a
> pink slip, when you didn't have to worry about day to day income.

Free markets are often rough. They mean there is no one to provide food 
for those who have no skills to offer.

Think of it as evolution in action. The burnoff of useless eaters will 
be glorious.


--Tim May