Max Eskin wrote:
>
> >Care to name some cool
> >technology that wasn't driven by capitalism?
> OK! the usage of fire, the processing of most materials (iron, copper,
> wood, stone, etc.). In fact, if you say that capitalism is only present
> when it's called capitalism, then most technologies. All simple
> machines. The scale. The boat. Most things achieved by the military such
> as the computer (yes, they were partly bombing Japan for economic
> reasons, but that's a little farfetched). All nuclear equipment was
> engineered separately in the USSR. Had enough yet? The printing press.
> The castle. The book. Writing.
>
> At any rate, I'm not saying Capitalism is BAD, I'm just saying it
> doesn't promote ingenuity, which is true for many other governments.
Maxie, you are young. As I recall, when I was about your age when I
spent about a week as a Marxist before I realized there was nothing in
it for me or for anybody else. Contrary to popular fantasy, very little
is actually _created_ by governments. The biggest problem with NASA for
instance is that it tries to pretend it's responsible for shitloads of
developments done by contractors who worked for a profit.
The printing press was developed by a guy who owed too much to a church/
government lending agency. Castles were developed by guys who realized
they needed walls to hide behind in case the people they were stealing
from got past the rhetoric -- the IRS is learning this trick. If you
can give me an independent reference for _anything_ the USSR invented,
I'll be extremely surprised. Hell, the Soviet auto and gun industries
were based out of factories delivered by the US during "The Great
Patriotic War".
Give me an example of a computer innovation done during the last twenty
years by a government or socialist organization. If you do, I swear that
I will shit in my hat and wear it backwards. And I do not swear lightly.
Companies working to take a profit from government contracts don't count
(and rarely produce).
--
Ward Griffiths
They say that politics makes strange bedfellows.
Of course, the main reason they cuddle up is to screw somebody else.
Michael Flynn, _Rogue Star_
Received on Thu Jun 25 1998 - 22:19:34 BST