The Austrian horseman, lover, and economist (probably in that order of importance to him) Joseph Schumpeter, in his seminal Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy made the point that the beauty of capitalism wasn't that it brought ever more luxuries to queens but that by constantly refining the processes of production and distribution, made those luxuries available to the veriest factory girl.
Something which Jerry Seinfeld recently stumbled on, as a one-liner in the middle of this episode of Comedians in Cars, Getting Coffee. To which we were alerted by the indispensable Craig Newmark of N.C. State.
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss missed the opportunity to respond that today, all men drive better cars than those available to Bond...James Bond, too. As anyone can walk into a Toyota dealership and buy a reasonably priced car that will outperform the Aston-Martin from Goldfinger in numerous important ways. It will have a more efficient engine with better gas mileage, will be safer, with better brakes and suspension, and probably beat Bond around a race track.
Something Kshama Sawant and friends are woefully ignorant of, in their quest to immiserate the masses of Seattle-ites.
[spelling of Herr Schumpeter's name corrected, thanks to Andrew Garland.]
Typo: It should be Joseph Shumpeter.
ReplyDeleteI mean, Joseph Schumpeter.
ReplyDelete