It's not usually your decision.

The market, the people buying your product decide for you by their choices.

Suppose the widgets are people?

By what criteria can we designate one person blessed, while another is designated a threat to the blessed one?

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This rich text thing is working well. 

Suppose the factory is the USofA, the product is our economy and the widgets are educated citizens.

That is a valid parallel, isn't it?

A short time ago, but in a galaxy far, far away...., the one-and-only sphinx of the cotton field (bollweevil) noted concerning capitalism;

consider: capitalism is the creation of markets for Murkan goods at any cost.

question: what exactly *are* "Murkan goods" these days when

1) we get most of our stuff from elsewhere,

2) we exclude the arms trade, hollywood movies, and rap music.

(one) answer: construction, or if you're willing to think on multiple levels: THE PRODUCTION OF SPACE. what goes on in the spaces that capitalism produces is *secondary* to the fundamental engine of 0wning land and 0rganizing the volume above and below it. on the consumer end that most of us occupy it looks like the point of capitalism is to provide us with more and more options when it comes to coffee products, cel phones, cars, etc. but that's simply us looking through the wrong end of the telescope.

what gets put into boxes is irrelevant to a system that is chiefly concerned with building boxes.

think about it.

this is, incidentally, not a party specific question though party specific answers can be generated -- which is really just a big fat distraction since politics is merely MENTAL SPACE, produced and leased by capitalism like any other space...

think about it.

"Suppose the factory is the USofA, the product is our economy and the widgets are educated citizens.

That is a valid parallel, isn't it?"

 
The problem is that the other company manufacturing widgets, namely economies like those of China and India, are not necessarily producing inferior widgets.  Cheaper, but not necessarily inferior, particularly if we look at the long-term horizon.

While  we subject our children to theocratic, zealot arguments about whether the earth is flat (aka "intelligent design"), other emerging economies are ensuring that their students are learning the lastest in science, math, and technology.

consider: capitalism is the creation of markets for Murkan goods at any cost.

These days, capitalism is what happens if you just leave people to make their own decisions.

There was a time when that was not so.  A time when religious beliefs, unenlightened authority, and lack of various infrastructure precluded widespread commerce.

However, the successes of capitalism make it unlikely that we'll ever voluntarily give it up.

There was a time when that was not so. A time when religious beliefs, unenlightened authority, and lack of various infrastructure precluded widespread commerce.

again: captialism is about PRODUCING SPACE. including HEADSPACE.

To suggest an American information strategy for the 21st century, John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt drew inspiration from the prophetic writings of a French soldier, paleontologist, and Jesuit theologian of the early 20th century, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (TAY-yar DUH Shar-DAN). The controversial writings of Teilhard during World War I and the 1920s were censored by the Vatican but published posthumously in the 1950s and 1960s. He asserted that evolution and Christianity, far from being at odds with each other, are in fact part of the same process: the evolution of a benign spiritual force through increasingly complex forms of material life on earth. Teilhard foresaw that human beings would rise to a new evolutionary plane characterized by the global coordination of intellectual, social, and spiritual energies. He called this higher plane the "noosphere" (NEW-oh-sphere), defining it as an all-encompassing realm of the mind (from the Greek noos, or "mind"). Teilhard predicted that this realm would eventually supersede the prior evolutionary realms of the geosphere and the biosphere as the supreme milieu of the spirit on earth. Today, Teilhard is occasionally credited with anticipating the Internet.

which along with the resource appropriation strategy, is precisely why the Murkan hegemon has launched into a planet spanning culture war...,

However, the successes of capitalism make it unlikely that we'll ever voluntarily give it up.

Images of N!xau come to mind here...,

Ah cnunlan it's good to see you back in form.

  Much of what you'd doubtless fancy as freedom, is really nothing more than propaganda or psychotechnologically mediated culturocide....,

Here's an example of freedom: I choose to spend more time interacting with you and others here at P6 than I spend watching television.  Propoganda sometimes appears, but is effectively countered.  Culturocide, I've not observed.

Now what was that Janet Jackson was selling back in the Superbowl? 

Ah cnunlan it's good to see you back in form.

Here's an example of freedom: I choose to spend more time interacting with you and others here at P6 than I spend watching television. Propoganda sometimes appears, but is effectively countered. Culturocide, I've not observed.

Suppose you owned a factory. You make world-class widgets as a step in manufacturing a product for a market you've dominated years. Suppose someone else also makes widgets for their product in a different market. Their widgets are aren't as good as yours, but they're made by a different process at significantly less cost. Do you adapt their widget technology, maybe putting a little more expense in to bring it up to your quality standards? Do you buy widgets from them? Suppose the widgets are people?

My response to the original random thought went to the why and wherefore traditional cultures accept the monstrosity of Murkan-ness....,

We were, however, talking about Murkan criminality in the context of the mythology of free markets, weren't we?

Near as I can recall, you're the only one who talks about Murkans. No one else knows quite what the hell you're talking about, but it's easy to grasp the tone and share a sense of vague hostility toward Murkans.  I sure don't like 'em, they're not my kind.

Re: culturocide. You seen any around here?  I'd like to meet it in in person, or as close as we get.  I imagine I have a chance to civilize it.

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The way copy/paste works with this editor is awesome. It's simply, but elegantly correct for the context.