[lbo-talk] barbaric (was Marxism and religion)

Tayssir John Gabbour tayssir.john at googlemail.com
Sun Mar 4 12:54:43 PST 2007


On 3/4/07, Bill Bartlett <billbartlett at aapt.net.au> wrote:
> I know what you are getting at. Choice is a poor substitute for
> freedom. What's more, I think people are getting a damn sick and
> tired of having choice foisted on them at every turn. I know I am.
> I'm sick of telemarketers ringing me up and offering me choices of
> this and that. I'm sick of having to absorb and comprehend all the
> different options of all the myriad brands of every product.

That's interesting. My perspective is a bit different. I think there's never enough information. And not enough choices outside a narrow range.

Or should I say USEFUL information. (Not creepy monkey-see-monkey-do pictures of actors portraying a smiling family on the box of the commodity.) I know nothing about the products themselves, like what the factory and sanitary conditions were like, etc. Stuff I MAYBE have an interest in knowing.

The actual workers are often happy to proactively tell you about flaws and problems. Like what pathogens might be in each tasty bite.

How much rainforest ("the world's largest pharmacy") is in each fluffy bag of toilet paper?

A typical large store is full of people, yet isn't a social place. Go in, do your shopping, maybe be tempted by myriad tricks, and get out.

As for choice, markets have well-known biases against things like public goods; the objective-sounding term in the business community is "bad business model." But in reality, many "bad business models" are examples of market failure. Nothing wrong with the idea, just that our system isn't good enough.

Tayssir



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list