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Ag, you are the perfect example. You are convinced that in order to get anything, you need to run to the corporate world. My health insurance is covered by the Canadian government. My taxes pay for road maintenance. I've been taken in an ambulance built by a government-owned manufacturer. An independent farmer will produce much better food than Kraft or Maple Leaf Foods. A Mastro Livi razor will shave better than the Gillette Corp. Fusion model razor. Time for a bit of a wakeup call :nj
FireStart, I don't care much for any government run coporations or "programs", either. They're as bad or worse than big private or publicly held corporations. However, things are changing and they're changing pretty quickly. The biggest challenge to the "giants" is the internet. Ironically, it's the computer that will set us free because small cottage industries can compete directly against big corporations and put them at a serious disadvantage with direct marketing on a micro scale. Small cottage industries such as you or me could run can cater to very specialized requests and very specialized services that big corporations simply can't perform or produce. They're geared for large production of items that are, generally, a good compromise - or can be marketed convincingly as a good compromise. Meeting specialized needs is beyond their scope and mission. But now..... a little guy can seek out those that WANT that sort of specialized or superior product and the internet provides the marketplace where that sort of business can be done efficiently.
Today, you can get high quality custom products that you couldn't find 20 years ago because the maker and the consumer couldn't get together often enough to make it a viable business. A business that might only have 500 potential customers in all of North America that contributed to a relatively small annual gross sales would never have gotten off the ground with a physical storefront. Finding a way to get to enough of those rare potential customers was simply not possible and mass advertising isn't an option.
How many moss scuttles do you think would have been sold without the benefit of the internet? Same with specialized machines, straight razors, sports accessories, etc. etc. etc. Good things are happening and I expect small and very talented enterprises to spring up like crazy and thrive over the forseeable future and they'll benefit all of us because the business will be good for the local economies, good for individuals and us, as consumers, will have options and products we only wished were available in years gone by. :)
So what's it gonna be.... the red pill or the blue pill? ;)
Robert, you're right about things changing. I like the philisophy of a government-run program because it's liable to me -- the tax payer instead of a bunch of rich share-holders. However, they're becoming more and more liable to the corporate world (2 words: eminent domain), so the lines are blurring.
It's good that the internet is giving us the ability to market directly to the consumer, but the corporate world still has its fingers in this pie. I am paying $50 a month to Bell Canada and PP gets a cut of all of my sales. If you sell something on e-bay, then another piece of the pie goes to them.
The only two bright lights that I see are bloggers and the open source community. I hope they live up to their full potential.
A perfect example of how corporatisation sows the seeds of its own demise. This is expected. It is Morpheus holding out two pills.Quote:
Originally Posted by PapaBull
"You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes."
By your own admission it should be the red pill.Quote:
Originally Posted by PapaBull
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lancer
Now thats a scary movie:roflmao
huh......and I thought 'The Matrix' was a movie about a bunch of guys flyin' around the room and dodging bullets.....
(...so-o-o-o-o...what movie was I watching???...)
-whatever
-Lou
"I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he's expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not far from the truth."Quote:
Originally Posted by scarface
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Poor Firestart, he must be gagging on all these bad puns/quotes from that movie...
I can live with it as long as you don't include chick flick quotes :fim:
I think you're safe... I just spent 30 seconds trying to think of a chick flick and came up blank