[MD] Intellectual activity

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

All,

Taking a coffee break here at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, watching
mongoose frolic on the lawn of the Zen Garden. 

Craig had said about Nike valuing paying the athlete $10 million, and the
athlete valuing accepting, so why should a third party intervene?

Gentlemen and ladies, we are the third party, and we are already involved.
Because, you see, Nike would not value paying the athlete $10 million dollars
if it did not KNOW that such a product endorsement will likely manipulate the
"value" consumers place in buying Nike products.

Here is where Pirsig's assessment of the "vendors of style" from ZMM is most
accurate. Little has changed since Pirsig wrote those words, and I'd argue that
they have gotten worse.

Khaled, is this what you mean by "synthetic value"?

SA, you mention the production mode (including everything from production type,
to wages to geographic area) of Nike shoes, sayihng "We as a country still have
the $ to buy these shoes and market these shoes, as long as, we depend upon
other countries."

This is what makes the evening news, with its latest Manufactured Nightmare of
"Illegal Immigration", so fun to watch. Isn't it? Americans love their cheap
products and business loves their cheap labor. What we sadly miss is that each
purchase is not simply a value decision on an "object", abstract and existing
independently of the production mode through which it comes to be. A purchase
is a value endoresment of 8 cents an hour wages, no health care, overseas
production, mass production, and all the ins and outs of how that product got
to market.

A few weeks ago, 20/20 (I think) ran a special on the founder of Starbuck's
coffee. In it, he says that one reason his coffee costs more, is that he gives
ALL his employees who work more than 30 hours a week full benefits. When you
buy Starbucks, you are doing more than making a valuation of the cup of coffee
in your hand, but also a valuation of how that cup got their, including farming
practices, treatment of employees and community integration.

When we buy 39 cent heads of lettuce, we are doing more than buying that single
vegetable. We are buying "illegal immigration". Those who are arguing from
total deportation or total citizenship are really arguing for $3.39 heads of
lettuce, what that lettuce would cost if lettuce growers had to hire and pay
legal U.S. citizens. Those who want Weaver foods fined for employing so many
"illegals", should be vocal about their desire to pay MORE for their frozen
dinners.

And, consider, why is it different for an "American" to lose her/his job to a
foreigner HERE than losing her/his job to foreigner overseas? Why is one "the
free market" and the other "criminal"? If we want to pay only 8 cents an hour
for wages, what's the difference between them coming to us, or us going to
them? 

SA also says, "China, major human rights failures, but we need their business so
we shallow our independence to keep them satisfied, and yet how much of this
relationship with China will come back to hit the U.S. in the butt?"

This is just part and parcel of the hypocracy of the Moral Warriors in this
country, who taut America's Moral Duty to bring her moral fiber to the world,
and yet courts evil and inhumanity whenever it is financially convenient.
Remember Hussein? We knew about his abuses long before the war, and yet we gave
him money and guns and turned a blind eye, so long as his evil kept the region
destabilized. Its never about the Moral High Horse, its always about what is
financially or politically beneficial for the government at any given time.
Human rights mean nothing.

OK, the mongoose are chasing birds and I am going to the Polynesian cultural
center to talk about Hawai'ian language revitalization. 

Arlo