From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Thu Oct 27 2005 - 08:37:53 EDT
The following was just published in "Left Hook" magazine. It's less
than 4 days to Halloween....
In solidarity, Jerry
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The Devil and the Free Market: Allegory in one act
Joseph G. Feinberg
Scene 1.
SINNER: I sold my soul on the free market.
DEVIL: What happened to my monopoly?
SINNER: They offered me more.
DEVIL: What did you get?
SINNER: A bailout package and a presidency.
DEVIL: What did you need the bailout package for?
SINNER: I sold everything else on the free market, and I had nothing
left to pay my bills.
DEVIL: And why did you need the presidency?
SINNER: To bring the free market to everyone.
Scene 2.
DEVIL: What does the market want with your soul?
SINNER: They don't care. They'll sell it again and buy it and sell
it, and someone will make a profit. They don't care about the soul,
as long as it never gets used.
Scene 3.
DEVIL: You'll put me out of business.
SINNER: Just hold on, tighten your belt. There will be a market glut
soon enough, and the value of a soul will go way down. I got rid of
mine in the nick of time.
DEVIL: A crisis of underconsumption?
SINNER: There won't be many folks left who want a good soul. DEVIL:
But then what, after all the cheap souls are sold? Every one left
will be worth a fortune. I can't afford to be offering the world to
every fellow who holds out on me. Hell, I've only got one world to
offer.
SINNER: Then give up. There are some souls that never will get sold.
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Joseph Grim Feinberg studies folklore and social theory in the
department of anthropology at the University of Chicago. He would
rather just be a writer, an activist, and a collective participant
in folklore than a student caught in the right hooks of academic
life. He is active in a Chicago-based anti-capitalist group called
the 49Underground.org.
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