|
Edited on Sun Jun-27-10 01:28 AM by saras
And what's wrong with being anti-business anyways? In my own 50+ years of life, it is the single worst-working system I've ever encountered, except fundamentalist religion (although I would include institutional Communism and what I call minimalist materialism - nothing exists but what I know about and believe. everything else is foolishness and fraud.)
Using business principles in one's personal life is what one does when they have been stripped of all humanity and aspiration, and are struggling for mere survival. Most of the signs of "success", at least for those who please themselves more than they try to fit in, are choosing more of what one wants and less of what one can afford.
My credit union treats me better than a bank because they have values other than those of business. My wife stays with me because she has values other than business. My children choose their lovers based on values other than business, thank God. My food coop makes better choices than the commercial grocers nearby, because they have values other than business. My town has an amazing, real, old-fashioned hardware store - heaven for those of us who still like manipulating the material world more than the virtual, and it only exists because the real live humans who own it have values above and beyond those of business. I choose the flowers along my sidewalk for their aesthetics, not their economic value - unless I am too poor to have a sidewalk to collect wildflowers for, economics plays little or no role. Two of my lifetime role models, Robert Moog and Bob Oberheim, lost the right to use their own names on their own products, because business values loomed too large in their lives at critical points.
A small increase in the amount of crime in my neighborhood produces a large increase in sales of security devices and services - an unmitigated economic good, given that the crime is all economic, involving petty thefts of items that are then replaced, ALSO helping the local economy. Do I want the businesses that profit from this to vote or otherwise act in a civic manner so as to increase their profits this way? NO. Do I expect them to notice and stop doing it if they do something accidentally with this effect? NO. Does this mean that their business interests are hostile to my well-being, and need to be countered by other values, whether mine, theirs, or other community members? YES.
Being against business is like being against sewage. No one interested in urban society is against it completely - it's necessary - but nearly everybody should be against it being anywhere but where it belongs, and for good reason. Exactly where it belongs is, among other things, a rightful subject of politics.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
