Jerry Mander's new book explores the fatal flaws of the "obsolete" capitalist
system and strategies for change.

There Are Good Alternatives to US Capitalism, But No Way to Get There | Alternet

Buyers remorse? The thing he bought into didn't work well?

Why stop at wealth redistribution? Why not even out the smarts, strengths, grace, good looks, skill and cunning?

You can learn the rules and play the game or you can leave and create your own game. At least for now.

Hopium has been found to be a very dangerous and ineffective drug, you should avoid it.

It brings on attacks of desire for "moar free stuff" which can't be quenched.

Summary of the replacement proposed: We need a whole lot of "moar free stuff" and just the right people to tell us how to live properly. This will fix everything.

By Alison Griswold

NEW YORK | Mon Jul 29, 2013 12:28pm EDT

(Reuters)

Consumer demand for Moar Free Stuff(tm) reached an all time high today as markets churned to nowhere. MFS demand shows no sign of slacking and producers of MFS have been unable to meet demand due to scarcity of the raw materials used in the production of MFS.


Many wholesale outlets report a decades long backlog with no improvement in sight. Up to this point MFS supply has been adequate, but future funding for production has lagged far behind demand due to the very low price producers have been able to get for MFS.

Promises to up the quota of MFS in the ninth three year plan are expected to be announced shortly.

The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common :
They don't alter their views to fit the facts,they alter the facts to fit their views.
Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering .

It is , after all, fairly simple. If you think the property or life of another belongs to you, all you have to do is go and get it.

Most will hire thugs to do this, easy enough to find since they often hold out their services on TV. You will, of course, have to pay them in advance and there is never a firm contract for performance.

This is made more difficult since those seeking to steal will hire one set of thugs and those seeking to prevent theft may hire another set.

Kurt Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron" is an excellent account of this PC future. The opening paragraph is great, and the story only gets better:

"The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. The weren't only equal before God and the law. The were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anyone else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General."

Read it all in "Welcome to the Monkey House" by Vonnegut. He wrote the story in 1961. Prophetic.

A favorite, and something I just had in mind. The ultimate extension of some current thought. Well done.

"In the end more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free."
- Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)

“Faith in central banks today is equivalent to faith in the word dot-com in 1999 or faith in the eternal rise of housing prices in 2006.”

John Mauldin

"The only fair trade is free trade."

WW