From: GBurch1@aol.com
Date: Tue Dec 07 1999 - 16:02:08 MST
In a message dated 12/7/99 4:40:27 PM Central Standard Time,
hibbert@netcom.com writes:
> Has anyone pointed out to them how astonishingly ignorant of economics
> those books are? I've read them, and mostly enjoyed them as good
adventure
> store, but I had to treat them less as science fiction than as economic
> fiction. There's no commerce of any kind in the book. And it's not just
> the usual "it's not part of the story line, so I don't have to include
it",
> it's actively denied as part of the story. (Communal living, communal
> values, you know.) No buying and selling, but everyone always has plenty
> of water, food, air, and shelter, except when a crisis is happening.
I share your opinion of that element of the books -- in fact, it was such an
appalling aspect of the material I couldn't finish them.
> There's no way a society could exist under those conditions, let alone
> grow, and evolve. Does the "law and governance" crowd expect supplies to
> arrive everywhere by magic, or are they confronting these problems?
There are a couple of posters that have a clue about such matters, sort ot.
But there's also such a lot of incredible naivete that I've given up
contributing, for the most part. It's sad, really.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
"We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know
enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another
question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species."
-- Desmond Morris
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:06:00 MST