[MD] Speaking of intellectuals

[Platt Holden]

> Ant McWatt comments:
> 
> It was strange to see recently that Platt not only put forward George
> Orwell as one of his intellectual heroes but to also agree with the
> great socialist writer, Robert Tressell, that “those who work have a
> right to own what they work to produce.”

Ant, you left out the following sentence. "Your work is compensated by 
its value to others in a free market where goods and services are 
exchanged through the medium of money rather than through a restrictive 
and awkward barter system."

As for the excerpt from Tressel's novel, he conveniently left out the 
risk taken by the capitalist and the investors in the enterprise, not 
to mention the sudden magical appearance of "all the machinery of 
production," as if the "factories, tools and railroads" suddenly  
dropped from the sky. Ah well, economics was never the socialists' 
strong suit. What's the current rate of growth in socialist Europe vs. 
capitalist America? About half if I'm not mistaken, due no doubt to 
"But what the socialists left out and what has all but killed their 
whole undertaking is an absence of a concept of indefinite Dynamic 
Quality." (Lila, 17) -- among other things.

Best regards, 
Platt