[lbo-talk] why Prince is right

[shag carpet bomb]

At 05:48 PM 7/10/2010, Dennis Claxton wrote:
>At 11:38 AM 7/10/2010, shag carpet bomb wrote:
>
>
>>Dwayne thinks these people are a minority: horse shit. It is at the heart 
>>of capitalism: how can i sit around and make money by getting OTHER 
>>people to do as much work as possible for as little as possible. the 
>>capitalist tries to maximize profits, the petty bourg by trying to 
>>conserve his costs by paying other petty bourgs as little as possible. 
>>Now, you'd think a small business owner, who relies on other people to 
>>pay their bills to him,
>
>
>I think you're moving the goalpost.  No one's disagreeing that 
>exploitation is at the heart of capitalism.  Dwayne's talking specifically 
>about people wanting stuff free on the internet.  I think maybe things are 
>progressing in typical fashion.  The first one is free.
>

i have no idea what the freetard movement is. Some of what Dwayne pays for 
is described by Chris Anderson as part of the new world of "Free". So, 
beats me what Dwayne means by freetards. I thought he was talking about 
supporters of Anderson. But supporters of Anderson would be thrilled to 
death that you are paying for that. You are participating in the economy of 
free! Some of those things Dwayne buys are exactly what Chris Anderson 
describes in Free and what I've ridiculed as not free, but paid for - in 
the ways Dwayne is paying for. Anderson talks about Freemiums, like Flickr. 
He talks about bogos or direct cross subsidies such as when you buy a razor 
with five cartridges and it costs less than buying five cartridges alone. 
this is the "Free" that Anderson is talking about.

As for my objection to Dwayne, I was referring to this comment: "Of course, 
there are still plenty of people who expect Shag to freely develop websites 
and Doug to freely produce and distribute his newsletter and books.These 
people are idiots who aren't keeping up with current events."

Dwayne, your buddy, the millionaire, who you sent my way, asked me to work 
for free   - to run  -- I shit you not -- his entire business on spec. He 
wanted me to do every single bit of work, from web site production to 
shipping the book, for the same dealio Apple gives musicians - only worse. 
He was going to take a lot more than 30%. He's not an anomaly. He's not a 
freetard (whatever that means). He is *normal*. He is normal for the 
reasons I outlined, because to behave like that is encouraged in the bones 
of capitalism.

You don't think so. *shrug*