[MD] Where have all the values gone?

[Platt Holden]

Good morning Arlo,

Quoting Arlo Bensinger <ajb102 at psu.edu>:

> As Khaled implies, I believe that "craftsmanship" will return only when
> people have a greater scope to "value" than bottom-line cost. So long as
> "money is the measure of all things", how can one have a dialogue about
> "craft"?

Your nostalgia for the past when butchers, bakers and candlestick makers
held sway is appealing in a romantic way, but hardly workable in our modern
world of technology and mass production. Further, I see no moral clash
between crafsmanship, the pursuit of excellence, and a free market (money)
economy. The ability of Walmart to bring desired products to market at low
cost can be looked at as a form of business craftsmanship, allowing millions
to enjoy a standard of living that would otherwise be denied them. Anyway,
so long as people have the freedom to pursue their own interests as they see
fit without interfering with others trying to do the same, I see no inherent
moral problem. Nor do I see a problem with money as the medium of exchange
and as a measure of the value of goods and services. I would think we would
agree that a free society is more moral than one that is not, and that a
free market which permits responses to DQ to flourish is more moral than one
that is regulated at the point of a gun to achieve some Utopian social end,
such as proposed by Karl Marx.

Platt
   




-------------------------------------------------
This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/