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Thoughts on the free market…

The validity of the free market and free trade are so entrenched in our culture as to be beyond dispute. To argue against these concepts would be like arguing against the notion that the earth is round.

But, I’ve been thinking and I think I found the flaw in the argument…

I have no doubt that eliminating barriers to business makes business more efficient. In fact, it’s circular, so not only is it true, it doesn’t really tell us anything meaningful or useful.

What no one bothers to ask is whether it is always to our advantage to make business more efficient. The advantage used to be the clarion call of the free market brigade. Certainly back when the US was the world’s largest exporter, removing barriers to sell our crap to the rest of the world helped us. But now that we’re the world’s largest importer, every one agrees that free trade is killing us. At best they’ll say, “We’ve got to compete, learn to work smarter and harder or we’ll fail.” They’re admitting now that free trade is hurting us! They’re admitting that the free market necessitates that some will win and some will lose.

Now, as usual, I have to come up with an analogy, and here it is…

As I already stated, defenders of the free market claim that removing impediments makes the system more efficient. But what if we apply the same argument to something else, like say, criminal activity. Certainly removing impediments to crime would increase the efficiency of criminals. And like capitalism, there would be some winners and some losers, but the fact that there are losers would not be a bad thing. It’s a necessary part of the system.

But no one argues in favor of that because we don’t like the effects of crime. And here’s my point: We no longer like the effects of the free market. We hate what Walmart does to our towns. We hate that jobs are being sent over seas. We hate that nothing is made in the US anymore. We hate that our workforce has to compete with the third world for jobs. A competition we can never really win. If we hate all this, so why do we and our politicians allow it?!

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Zathura

The DVD for Zathura came out this week and Alex and I watched it Tuesday. We also saw it in the theater when it was released. I loved the movie back then and I love it now. There was just something about it, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I finally figured out why: It’s true to its audience.

Most movies nowadays, especially kids’ movies, try to cover as many demographic groups as possible. They’ll have parts that pander to boys, to girls, to teens, to young adults, and to parents. They want to make everyone has happy as possible to increase ticket and DVD sales.

Zathura takes the opposite approach. It’s a movie focused solely on boys age 4 through 16, and on men who want to be that age again. There are no pop-culture references to make parents feel hip. There are no strong female characters to make girls feel good. It’s a high quality movie for boys about boys. I don’t think such a movie has been made since Stand By Me back in 1986.

It also takes an opposite approach when it comes to marketing. It’s a movie about a game, but yet the game in the movie is impossible to make, and thus sell, in the real world. While the game in the book Zathura was merely a run of the mill board game involving dice, the movie version was a complex mechanical game that was actually controlled by several people off camera.

I find this amazing because Disney or Pixar would have taken the greedy approach and made the in-movie game as simple as possible to ensure sales of the game to increase profits. Obviously, the director of Zathura cared more about telling a fantastic story versus creating additional profit. (I should point out that unfortunately, some suit at Sony attempted to create a version of the in-movie game to soak up some profits. But it’s a mere shadow of the real game and was an after thought, not something planned during the movie.)

Anyway, if you have a boy age 4 through 16 do him a favor and rent this movie. He’ll love it.

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North Magnetic Pole Shifts to Utah, SCO, Inc Sues Santa, Compass Manufactures and Users

Utah – Scientists announced yesterday that the north magnetic pole has shifted its position and is now located directly under Lindon Utah, specifically under the corporate headquarters of SCO, Inc.

President and CEO of SCO Darl C. McBride said his company is looking forward to the opportunity to utilize and exploit this new opportunity. “Owning magnetic north, er, I mean SCO-North, will become a huge profit center for SCO. Our first order of business will be to facilitate the transfer of ownership of SCO-North from its previous owner to us. Thus, we’ve initiated breach of contract proceedings against Santa Claus.”

When asked whether suing such a beloved fictional character would harm SCO’s image, McBride responded, “SCO is a beloved by all. As the sole owner of UNIX and all its derivatives, the entire world looks to SCO for its leadership, quality products, and impeccable corporate responsibility.”

McBride went on to address his company’s intent to sue all manufacturers and users of compasses. “If you want to point to our headquarters, you’re going to have to pay for our proprietary property. We’ve invested heavily in this land and we’re not going to just sit and let others use it for free.”

When asked how users will adjust to paying for something they’ve long been using for free, McBride stated, “We’re going to make this as painless as possible for the user. Users will be able to access SCO-North by simply purchasing a yearly license and a new SCO compass. We’ll even offer family discounts.”

Anita Coney, spokesperson for Compass Manufacturing Amalgamated, responded to SCO’s legal action by saying, “No one owns magnetic north. The idea is simply asinine. It’d be like saying that one company owed Linux! This is bull-shit and McBride knows it.”

Microsoft is the first and only company to come out in favor of SCO-North and has purchased an exclusive license to use it on maps published on the internet. CEO Steve Ballmer was quoted as saying, “Let Google try to create maps without a north! We’ve won this round suckers!”

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What's the matter with Democrats

I just got done reading Thomas Frank’s “What’s the Matter with Kansas.” He pin-points exactly what’s wrong with the Democratic party, i.e., why they are losing elections right and left and why they always seem to be out of ideas. He wrote:

“With Democrats and Republicans having merged on free trade, the issues that remained were abortion and guns.”

When both parties are pro business and anti-worker, it’s no wonder that Democrats seem like fish out of water. When it comes to arguing good old fashioned god-fearing morality, the Republican party will always win hands down.

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