>Your metaphor "set the tone" is much too imprecise, and you need to
>provide some actual economic evidence, not just a few anecdotal
>examples.
Gee, Jon, I was under the impression this was a rather casual talk group and not a peer-reviewed journal. I was also under the impression that a few anecdotal examples, insubstantial as it was, was actually a bit more substantial in the way of evidence than had been presented to refute the tiny bit of Virno that I had presented. If I was confident that a major research effort on my part would be repaid with careful attention by a considerable number of list subscribers, I would have no hesitation in undertaking such. In the meanwhile, let's just say I was dangling Virno out there as bait for anyone who wanted to bite and if no one has anything of substance to say, it's no big loss as far as I'm concerned.
BTW, I do have a major reservation about Virno but with knee-jerk reactions, we're not even close to territory where critique would start to make sense.
The Sandwichman