it's true.

if you were to go back in a time machine and have an economic discussion with adam smith, he wouldn't know what the word 'capitalism' means - because it was invented by karl marx to describe the phenomenon of appropriation, many decades later.

adam smith would have just called himself a liberal, and his theory of free markets liberalism.

but, you have to remember that he also had that book on morality. he might have been naive, but he wasn't evil.

the word 'capitalism' arises out of the marxist critique of liberalism.

but, listen.

girls....

the fact is that you'd be bored of me in five minutes, once you've realized that i don't live in the same universe that you do. it's not even that i'm not going to have anything in common with you, it's that we're not going to know what the fuck the other one is even talking about.

i have more in common with your mom.

i'm 37 going on 67.

they're just little kids, to me....

if you send young girls at me, i'm going to be more concerned about calling their mom to get them home safe than i am going to be in hitting on them.

i didn't want to date, i just wanted to skip to being a retired couple.

i mean, that could have been a part of my total disinterest - i was mentally twenty years older than everybody around me, and kind of had to wait for them to catch up.

i am simply not attracted to "girls" at all, and never was.

i am single and like it.

but, i can't tell if you're 20 or 30 - and going to treat you as a child, either way.

i would only even be considering people that are 40+ - and dress and act like it.

hey, you're upset?

whaddaya gonna do?

put me in jail?

huh?

didn't wanna sheik yerbouti, mohammaamamamamamad?

c'mon. let's get him dressed up for an ironic response. i want a roll of quarters in his pants...

ok, so i can do a terse but serious analysis of the saudi thing.

clearly, if chrystia freeland had any intention of actually doing something concrete to release this blogger or her sister, she wouldn't have posted it on twitter. a lot of the media is suggesting this was unprofessional. but, that's kind of just the point - this was the government engaging in useless clicktivism, for the sole purposes of internal consumption. the fact that she posted it on twitter is a clear indicator that the government does not actually care about the situation at all.

generally, this kind of thing is intended as a distraction. the question is what they're distracting from. the refugee situation? our apparent removal from nafta? a pointless squabble with the saudis is an opportunity for better media...

...or so they no doubt thought.

it's hard to tell whether the saudis are reacting because they've been attacked as a part of a media ploy and are pissy about it, or because they see as much to gain from the reciprocity - if our government can benefit by using the saudis as a decoy, can the saudis do just as well by decoying us, too? or are they legitimately irked?

i frankly don't care much about what the saudis think at all. i've been calling for regime change in this country for years, under the understanding that they are the problem in the middle east. every stupid conflict happening there right now is entirely their fault, from libya to afghanistan. this regime must fall, if we want peace.

so, are they upset? really. awww. the wittle saudis are upset. awww.

but, there are benefits to kicking their students out, too - we need the housing, right now. and, we don't need more muslim doctors, either, as they don't follow the law here - they just whine about how it doesn't align with their religion.

i'm not going to get distracted about this. it strikes me as bullshit.

but, frankly?

i don't care if they are legitimately angry. good riddance.

so, when apple shares burst, will we get apple sauce or apple juice?

those stock prices are comedic.

i don't want to be rich.

what i want is to be free.

i'd stumble in late every day.

complain.

yell at people.

it's not the money. it's the wasted time.

if you did give me a job making $200,000, i'd invest all of it and retire off of the dividends within 6 months.

after all, i only need $1200/month to survive.

i would rather be desperately poor and totally free than filthy rich and hopelessly enslaved.

and, don't believe me?

just watch me.

if you're equally disinterested in both jobs, then it doesn't matter how much they pay you.

it could be $20,000/year or $200,000/year.

it's slavery if you don't want to be there, either way - and if you don't have a choice not to be.

and, i don't care if your company fails.

i don't care about your customers.

i don't care about your product.

i'm only here because the government insists i perform some kind of slave labour in order to pay the rentier class.

and, i'll let you know all about it at every opportunity, too.

i've been over this.

i'm an educated person.

i could probably get a government job. i haven't really tried very hard. it would probably be enough to buy a house, and pay off my loan.

but, if you're going to force me to work against my will, i'm not going to do that.

rather, i'm going to get a part-time job in a fast food restaurant.

why?

because i don't want to waste my brain at work.

a capitalist will compare these two jobs and conclude that the government job is preferable because it has higher pay. but, i'm not a capitalist. so, the important & quantifiable thing to measure is not money, but time. when i look at the government job, i see a heightened level of responsibility. i'd need to buy respectable clothes. i'd probably have to work on the weekend. i'd have to socialize with co-workers.

and, i don't want any of that. at all.

the fast food job, on the other hand, will offer me flexible hours. it will give me the option of working part time (and reducing my hours to the minimum necessary to pay rent). and, it will let me leave my job at work - so i can focus on what i actually care about when i get home.

is any of this getting through to anybody?

so, put them in jail, then?

well, i thought you were trying to save money?

these people live in a delusional market fantasy that projects the absurd belief that when you take away subsidies, people will adjust by teaching themselves marketable skills and competing freely on an open market.

no, lisa.

they're going to rob the fucking convenience store.

but, you have no job creation plan, lisa.

i've been clear over a long period that i don't share your views on labour, or on your religious outlook on work. we are philosophically diametrically opposed to each other, on this point. i do not believe that hard work sets anybody free, and will fight as hard as i possibly can to prevent you from enslaving me.

but, relative to your own skewed morality, or your fucked up logic of capital, shouldn't your first priority be to create jobs, and not to cut welfare? by your own belief system, shouldn't people choose to work, if the jobs were only available to them?

we're mere weeks into their mandate, and they've immediately announced plans to cut social assistance - without even musing about ways to improve the economy. so, it seems like they care more about cutting welfare than they do about creating jobs, and aren't really interested in the question of whether there are jobs available for people or not.

they presented absolutely no plans about cutting social assistance to the electorate, either.

the fact is that they just want to cut spending, at any cost. and, if the result of their policies is simply increased homelessness and higher crime rates, they'll just dump the responsibility off to the church - because they don't believe that government has a role to play in social cohesion, they just think it's a waste of money.

well, when the crime rate picks up, lisa, because you tossed all these people out on their ears, we'll see how well that money is really being spent, won't we?

it's just mind-boggling to me that these people need to make the same mistakes over and over again - that they're incapable of learning from history, or understanding the outcomes of science.

but, they just cancelled the ubi rather than wait for the results. they're not interested in data. they don't care about science....