- I've never been to Hawaii and generally can't afford yearly vacations abroad; - Don't have Cable modem or DSL - not available where I reside in Oakland, imagine that in the B.A.; - Don't have the current income for 50" screen DVD/CD/VCR surround sound home entertainment ensembles; - Therefore, don't own copies of favorite movies
Of course, I have almost no consumer debt, either :-) But the requirement that I go into debt to acquire these things is just another expression of the same limitation
Now, this could be interpreted as a bit of evidence of how "really severe the shortage is", but it is really a stretch to "naturalize" the "shortage" in this way even for the 1% who one would think should have these within the reach of their current income.
More likely, it is a commentary on what a piss-poor system capitalism is in the production and distribution of the most advanced forms of (ever potentially, under capitalism) human civilization.
-Brad Mayer, Oakland CA
Apparently, it can't be repeated enough: " In these crises, there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would have seemed an absurdity — the epidemic of over-production. Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state of momentary barbarism; it appears as if a famine, a universal war of devastation, had cut off the supply of every means of subsistence; industry and commerce seem to be destroyed. And why? Because there is too much civilization, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce."
> > > Brad DeLong wrote:
> > >
> > > >But at the moment there isn't enough to give everyone once-a-year
> > > >vacations at Kapalua Beach in Hawaii a broadband connection to the
> > > >internet, or a large-screen TV-VCR on which to watch their own
> > > >copies of "Don Giovanni," "Casablanca," "The Seven Samurai," and
> > > >"The Rules of the Game" when it strikes them.