(3089/898) That economy stuff - and chaser

2330) [T]he problem with the corporate control of America is that it is so completely undemocratic. [...] Why on earth should Americans be willing to allow the same people who have brought us rampant downsizing, widespread union-busting, wholesale exportation of industrial jobs to sweatshops, and the greatest division between wealth and poverty in the nation's history to increase their presence in our lives? [...] Our political system is based on the concept of one person/one vote, but our capitalist economy is strictly and clearly dedicated to the concept of one dollar/one vote. [...] To turn over public policy issues to private decision making is not merely a question of efficiency or economics. It is a profound choice about how decisions are made, who makes them, and what kind of society we live in.

Raven B. Earlygrow
letter to the editor
Wired (4/1996)
[response to "Is Government Obsolete"
by David Kline and Daniel Burstein in
Wired (1/1996)]

2331) The key to economic renewal lies not just in increased public sector investment in education and infrastructure. We also need collective action to ensure that a fair share of the wealth created by the new economy makes its way down to workers. Wages and benefits do not rise just because the government wants then too, they rise when people demand it. Maybe people can address these problems through traditional unions. Maybe people need a hybrid organization - a cross between a professional association and a traditional trade union. Or maybe people can come together and organize through cyberspace. But without collective action, we are all at the mercy of the new economy. This may come as anathema to Wired readers who promote the independent / entrepreneurial / libertarian values of high-tech culture. Yet, this much is certainly true - as long as we remain isolated in our cubicles we are going to get stomped like geeks at a grunge show.

Chris Benner
letter to the editor
Wired (6/1996)
[response to "It's the New Economy, Stupid"
by John Heilemann in
Wired (3/1996)]

2332) We can do anything we like as long as it is unimportant.

Theodore Kaczynski aka "The Unabomber"
"Industrial Society and Its Future" (aka "The Unabomber Manifesto")
(mis)quoted by Rolf von Richter in
letter to the editor in Wired (7/1996)
[response to "Americans Are Not As Free
As We Think We Are" by Charles Platt
in Wired (4/1996)]