Capitalism: Part I
Just a short post today since it's Friday and I'm a bit busy trying to finish off this weeks work! And since its Friday why not round off the week with an amusing little story that happens to be very relevant to Capitalist society. This is the kind of thing that passes as humour amongst salesmen and marketing people!
There are two work colleagues walking out in the wilderness as part of a "team building" exercise. They reach a long narrow river valley and start walking along, enjoying the beauty of the countryside, the peace and quiet and the fresh air. After they have walked a couple of miles they see a grizzly bear a little way off in the distance. He's clearly not in the best of moods! The grizzly starts running very fast towards the two men "Jesus, look at the bear! He's huge. He's running straight for us! I think he's going to attack us! What the hell are we going to do?!" says one of the guys. The other guy takes off his rucksack, removes a pair of top quality Nike trainers and proceeds to put them on his feet. The other guy starts screaming at him "What the hell are you doing? We're never going to outrun that bear!". The guy with the trainers turns around calmly and says "I don't need to outrun the bear. I only need to outrun you."
I think you can learn all kinds of things about competition from that little anecdote! Have a good weekend. Next post should be on Monday, with a bit more on capitalism and competition.
There are two work colleagues walking out in the wilderness as part of a "team building" exercise. They reach a long narrow river valley and start walking along, enjoying the beauty of the countryside, the peace and quiet and the fresh air. After they have walked a couple of miles they see a grizzly bear a little way off in the distance. He's clearly not in the best of moods! The grizzly starts running very fast towards the two men "Jesus, look at the bear! He's huge. He's running straight for us! I think he's going to attack us! What the hell are we going to do?!" says one of the guys. The other guy takes off his rucksack, removes a pair of top quality Nike trainers and proceeds to put them on his feet. The other guy starts screaming at him "What the hell are you doing? We're never going to outrun that bear!". The guy with the trainers turns around calmly and says "I don't need to outrun the bear. I only need to outrun you."
I think you can learn all kinds of things about competition from that little anecdote! Have a good weekend. Next post should be on Monday, with a bit more on capitalism and competition.
Labels: capitalism, competition, salesmen
posted by Schadenfreude at
16:07
4 Comments:
You would prefer that they both died?
Don't know if it should be taken quite that literally Ed, but if you want to take it literally I would point out that the joke doesn't indicate if there was another option where they would BOTH survive. Fact is that one just didn't wait around to find out - he already had a solution for himself and that was good enough!
I think your stated theme of looking at society and economy as quasi-mechanical processes is just what's needed, now those processes are threatening to destroy us/themselves. I seem to be hearing more and more people talking about the need for systemic change. The more you can explain what you know simply for us, the better.
Good to see you here Sackers. Thought your last post on Bearwatch was a good one. Must add Bearwatch to my blogroll.
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