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From: mroddy@enmasse.UUCP (Mark Roddy)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Widgets Redux
Message-ID: <377@enmasse.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Mar-85 20:02:30 EST
Article-I.D.: enmasse.377
Posted: Mon Mar 18 20:02:30 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 20-Mar-85 04:48:39 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Enmasse Computer Corp., Acton, Mass.
Lines: 93

[widgets again]

	The free community of Libertaria was well known for its fine
	hand crafted widgets. The citizens of Libertaria lived a 
	comfortable and industrious existence from the production
	and trade of widgets. A good living for a family could be
	earned by setting aside 3 days of the week to widget crafting.

	Those citizens who had no skill at widget-making earned their
	livelihood either from the widget trade, or through providing
	other services to the community. Everybody was happy and content
	with life in Libertaria. Except j-S. 

	j-S had a dream, a dream of power and glory, where j-S would be
	superior to all the citizens of Libertaria, where, in fact, j-S
	could spend the rest of his life basking in the sun of a 
	tropical island, consuming intoxicating substances and fornicating
	wantonly. 

	And so j-S worked 6 days a week making widgets. He saved lots of
	credits from his widget production, and after several years of
	labor, he started to implement his plan.

	He travelled throughout the land, until he found a machine that
	could be adapted to manufacture average widgets at an alarming rate.
	He brought his device back to Libertaria, and started production.

	At first the citizens of Libertaria were amused. These were just
	average widgets, not the superior hand crafted widget that
	Libertaria was famous for. But j-S was able to sell his widgets
	for half the price that hand crafted widgets had been sold for.
	And j-S was able to supply as many widgets as people wanted to
	buy.

	Slowly, except for the few widget craftspeople who made a truly
	remarkable widget, every widget artisan was forced out of
	business. A few citizens pooled their resources and bought
	a second widget machine, but most citizens did not have the
	resources to acquire widget machines. Besides, there was an
	abundance of widgets anyway.

	Soon the widget artisans were widget laborers, toiling six
	days a week at the widget factory, and living not nearly as
	well as they had before j-S. There really wasn't a need for
	quite as many widget laborers as there had been for widget
	artisans, so many of the citizens were out of work.

	j-S meanwhile, had retired from Libertaria, leaving a group of
	professional managers to run things in his place.

	Now, you might wonder why the citizens of Libertaria put up with
	this nonsense. Why were they working six days a week for
	miserabble wages so that j-S could fornicate and indulge in
	exotic drugs on a tropical island? 

	j-S was no fool. Some of his loot was spent to buy the only t.v.
	station in town, and some went to support widget artists, and
	some went to make some improvements in the life of the
	community, for j-S was a benign despot. 

	His t.v. station always pointed out that everything good that
	happened in Libertaria was a result of the introduction of the
	widget machine, and that therefore the citizens of Libertaria
	should be greatful for the wisdom and foresight of j-S.

	And there was truth in j-S's propoganda, for widgets were much
	cheaper than they were before, and in fact lots of other
	communities had their j-S's, and so dodads, gizmos and
	thingamajigs also were cheap and plentiful. And the people
	of Libertaria forgot about how they had to work all the
	time, and forgot about how there was this awful smelling
	smoke that came out of the widget factory, and forgot
	about how their children never used to get so many cancers
	at so young an age. And they consoled themselves with
	lots of dodads and gizmos and widgets and thingamajigs.

	And it is true the j-S really did nothing wrong, after all
	the people of Libertaria were free to choose some other craft
	to take up, they didn't have to make widgets. And if it
	wasn't for j-S risking all of his hard earned credits on the
	widget machine, there wouldn't be a widget factory and then
	nobody would have a job. So it was only fair that j-S should
	lay perpetual claim to all the profits from the widget factory.

	And j-S lay back in the sand, exhausted from a long day of
	fornication and drug abuse, and smiled at how good life was.
	And in Libertaria, life just went on.
-- 
						Mark Roddy
						Net working,
						Just reading the news.

					(harvard!talcott!panda!enmasse!mroddy)