Monk

"When you sell books at a loss, by the millions, to corner the market, you're not interested in competing. You're interested in burying your competitors and then burying the shovel."

-- Richard Russo, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist

Amazon is playing hard with publishers, insisting on greater discounts, or else having their products removed from the site. And this is not the only story circulating on the arguably predatory tactics of the Internet behemoth.

Personally, I feel that I am in an awkard position, philosophically speaking. I generally do not care to side with savage capitalism, but, god, I do love the low prices on their books. For instance, recently, in a GoodReads newsletter, I came across a new novel, "Strange Flesh" by Michael Olson, about virtual reality and wilder sex, and I wanted it badly. This is a brand new novel, and Amazon is already able to sell the new hardcover for only fifteen dollars, but, better yet, I was able to order the e-version for the Kindle for only, get this, one-ninety-nine. Merry fucking Christmas to me!

But I don't know where this is going to end. In the long run, the development of monopolies does not bode well for the republic, for the welfare of the people. However, I am not going to be around for the long term, and I am ecstatically grateful to be able to get books practically for free.

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Krugman discusses the perverse incentives that have been allowed to fester in corporate America since the Reagan years, and which encourage the kind of financial scandals we are seeing anent subprime mortgages, and which we have seen in years past as in the case of Enron. Our executive ranks are not sufficiently reigned in to help keep capitalism as healthy as it can be. What our would-be moral leaders like to point out to the masses also applies even more to those in power: freedom must come with responsibility.

( Krugman excerpt )

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"American capitalism is derided for its superficial banality, yet it has unleashed profound, convulsive social change," he writes. "Condemned as mindless materialism, it has burst loose a flood tide of spiritual yearning. The civil rights movement and the sexual revolution, environmentalism and feminism, the fitness and health-care boom and the opening of the gay closet, the withering of censorship and the rise of a 'creative class' of 'knowledge workers' -- all are the progeny of widespread prosperity."

-- John Stossel at RealClearPolitics.com

Stossel is still in an evangelical mood over the virtues of capitalism and libertarianism. There is a point to it. But you cannot help but think the world could be better, but maybe this feeling is itself part of the luxury of our system.

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The election of the conservative Sarkozy in France has inspired George Will to discuss the quandaries of French political economics in terms of the basic mechanics of capitalism. Since it's been a while since I've done an Economics 101 number, I will keep a large excerpt of this column, which is titled "Is France Willing to Work?" And I'll just briefly note that a little state welfarism is arguably needed to better distribute the fruits of wealth creation, and thus liberal societies are left to deal with this issue of balancing market forces and democratic forces to try to secure that greatest happiness for the greatest number, in priniciple.

( George F. Will excerpt )

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For those readers who ask me what they can do to help fight poverty, one option is to sit down at your computer and become a microfinancier.

That’s what I did recently. From my laptop in New York, I lent $25 each to the owner of a TV repair shop in Afghanistan, a baker in Afghanistan, and a single mother running a clothing shop in the Dominican Republic. I did this through www.kiva.org, a Web site that provides information about entrepreneurs in poor countries — their photos, loan proposals and credit history — and allows people to make direct loans to them.

-- Nicholas D. Kristof for The New York Times

How many would think that what the world needs is more capitalism?

( Kristof column )

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In his novel "I Married a Communist," Philip Roth writes: "He tells you capitalism is a dog-eat-dog system. What is life if not a dog-eat-dog system? This is a system that is in tune with life. And because it is, it works.

"Look, everything the Communists say about capitalism is true, and everything the capitalists say about Communism is true. The difference is, our system works because it's based on the truth about people's selfishness, and theirs doesn't because it's based on a fairy tale about people's brotherhood. It's such a crazy fairy tale they've got to take people and put them in Siberia in order to get them to believe it."

-- Roger Cohen for The New York Times

Mr. Cohen is actually writing in response to one of those sleazy business practices: backdating stock options to when the stock market was at its lowest during the 9/11 aftermath, a sort of profiteering off the terrorist attacks on America. But you can see the thought evolves from there.

Life in the real world, baby, is no perfect world, and we have to make do with what we got! The real choices.

Though, like religion, it is perhaps irresistible, especially for life's losers, to think that life can be better than this. Some day. Over the rainbow. When there is more on tap than bitter vinegar. Whatever gets you through the day, baby!

( Cohen column )

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