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                                                October 22, 2014             
About the comments at the dailykos,                                          
upon posting my anti-amazon.com             THE_PAX_VOBISCUM_BITE
piece...                                                                     
                                                                             
                                                                             
Quite a few people don't seem to                                             
get the very notion of "boycotts",        When you tell them Amazon is       
where an ethical concern is               evil, they respond "cheap!         
supposed to trump (or at least,           convenient!".  Uh... so?           
mitigate) immediate practical                                                
concerns.                                                                    
                                                                             
And quite a few people don't seem                                            
to get that there are risks with          Do I really need to explain        
centralization of power, and              this? I need to explain the        
putting a single company in               virtues of decentralization        
charge of a major piece of                and the balance of power?          
information infrastructure is not                                            
really a good thing...                    We may live to         Americans are
                                          curse amazon,          supposed to 
                                          facebook, google...    understand  
                                          (if we don't           checks and  
                                          already).              balances.   
                                                                             
                                                                             
Many of them, I think, are stuck                                             
on "the new thing" story:                                                    
                                                                             
We are members of the proud new generation                                   
that embraced the new newness of the new                                     
thing, and all you grumpy curmudgeons who                                    
are trying to tell us that the bright                                        
shiney newness is hiding some very big                                       
downsides, you're obviously just luddites                                    
who are resistant to change, how can you     In other words, there's this    
not appreciate life in the bold new world    tribal dispute where many       
of the newest newness of all?                people self-identify as young.  
                                             Barnes and Nobles has an "old   
                                             established" vibe about it, and 
                                             Amazon is the challenger, the   
                                             representative of a new era.    
                                                                             
                                             Indeed, many people praise      
                                             Amazon as a platform for        
                                             independent ebook publishing.   
                                                                             
                                             This is not a world I'm         
                                             familiar with, so I don't       
                                             know what to say to them,       
                                             except "there's gotta be        
                                             a better way".                  
                                                                                
     And remarkably enough, there               (After hearing the story "my    
     are still self-described                   neighbor's daughter is doing    
     "libertarians" around                      great selling on Amazon!"       
     willing to argue that                      several times, I've decided      
     anti-trust law is evil.                    these are shills.)              
                                                                                
     Maybe there's a goth                                                       
     revival coming up, too.                                                   
                                            I think "Rich in PA" is a        
                                            hilarious handle...              
                                                                             
                                            I lived in Palo Alto for many        
                                            years, but it was never something
                                            to brag about.                       
                                                                                 
                                                 (We called it                   
  Looking around the web at some other           "Shallow Alto".)                
  comments, I see that Mark Andreessen                                           
  supports my call for a boycott.                                    
  Sort of.                                                           
                                                                     
  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/marc-andreessen-slams-paul-krugmans-002248727.html

     "Krugman: ... in case you’re wondering,
     yes, I have Amazon Prime and use it a        Actually, Andreesen
     lot. But again, so what?"                    doesn't really think
                                                  we should do a boycott,
     "Andreessen: Amazon is hurting America,      this is just a
     but not enough for Paul Krugman to take      convienient attempt
     on a little inconvenience by using           at a "gotcha" attack.
     other ecommerce sites. Principles!"
                                                   Like most such things it
                                                   doesn't really hold-up.
                                                   Because hypothetically we
                                                   might run a succesful
                                                   boycott against Amazon,
                                                   does that necessarily
                                                   preclude an anti-trust
                                                   action?  Do boycotts
                                                   obviate the need for
                                                   anti-trust law?

                                                   There's nothing
                                                   logically inconsistent
                                                   with a belief in both
                                                   institutions.
                                                   
                                                   I suspect Andreesen
                                                   and co of arguing
                                                   disingenuously: they don't
                                                   really believe that
                                                   boycotts are effective,
                                                   that's why they're arguing
                                                   in favor of them.  They
                                                   don't want anything to be
                                                   effective: hail to thee
                                                   free market.
                                                                         
                                                   Bigger is better or it     
                                                   wouldn't be bigger.     
                                                                       






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