Capitali$m

The big difference between capitalism and communism is that in communism you know who to blame for your problems: The Party. In capitalism there's nobody to blame. The people who hurt you can plead innocence: The invisible hand made me do it (but the invisible hand is also the best thing in the world since it protects you from all the people who would try to ameliorate the harm it does to you, including communists). I am stuck living in a so-called "capitalist" country, irrespective of how much it is one and how go[o|l]d or bad capitalism is.^[1] Relatively acceptable human relations sometimes occur in this place – not often but not never.

In summer 2021, I met a man who lives in the same upscale but not "wealthy" neighborhood as myself. A neighbor. I remarked to him that I really liked his house. He told me a bit about the house. One thing is said, however, really struck me. He said that when he bought thte house, he gave instructions to the Real Estate broker to offer to pay any price the owner asked but with one condition: that they do not show the house to anybody else. That, to me (BMcC[18-11-46-503]), is an example of a transaction between a buyer and a seller in a capitlist economy that was honorable and which deserved to exist. Anybody who is looking for a "bargain" should bow their head in shame, because anytime one person makes a "killing", somebody else has been killed.

My father was a salesman (Click here to read about him). This man should never have been my father because he was not competent for that job (my father should have been someone iike Edmund Husserl or at least Noam Chomsky). But that is not what I wish to write here about this man.

Everybody knows what a "salesman" is. "Used car salesman" is a synonym for a sleaze. A salesman will "sell you a bill of goods". But my father was not like that. He probably could have sold anybody anything, but he didn't. His ethics were impeccable, both sideways and down. He was such a productive salesman, always exceeding his quotes, that he got promoted to first-line sales manager. Vertically, in the upward direction, he was shit on by his superiors ("upper management"). Vertically in the downward direction, after he died, one of his "man" took initiative ot get in touch with me to tell me how great my father had been. This salesman, who had been a direct report of my father's, almost worshipped him as a god on earth, that's how well my father treated the people "under" him.

Horizontally, this man who idolized my father, told me my father's attitude toward customers: "We never close deals; we open accounts." My father did not try to make a quick buck. He cultivated repeat business by providing a quality product with great service, albeit, sometimes he had to offer a discount to get the business. But I am sure he never would have offered an introductory price that he was snot willing to commit to over the long haul. Never a bait and switch. He would have despised Donald Trump as an unethical businessman, even though his "politics" may have been Republican Party.

Capitalism is beneath my dignity. I seek freedom, not: of enterprise, but from enterprise, to live a life of leisured study spending my days talking with Heraclitus and Sun Tzu and maybe Thomas Jefferson and Malcolm X, and others of my peers. But I think the problem with capitalism is only secondarily with the capitalists – the entrepreneurs and their fellow travelers. The root problem is bad customers: people who are looking for a bargain, people who accept the lowest price on an RFP (Request For Procurement), not the highest quality provider. They are the scum of capitalism, because the capitalists are in it to make a buck: If nobody bought Made in China but demanded only and always first quality made by highly skilled well paid workers who came to work because they wanted to not because they had to, then a capitalist country could deserve to exist because capitalists are always coerced by their invisible hand to cater to the market. And what should be the relation between salesman and customer?

"Every owner a salesmsan" (Packard Motor Company advertising slogan)

+2024.02.16 v039
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