Not all innovation is successful, but innovation has led us out of bucolic idiocy by bringing new products to market, improving the efficiency of manufacturing to permit mass consumption of high quality goods, and developing new methods of shipment to advance markets beyond a small local pool of consumers.
The point of my reference about line behavior is that Europeans are much more complaisant about putting up with inconvenience, likely a hold over from habits of deference developed in class ridden societies.
I am sure that American companies adapt where possible. I am also sure that McDonald's mainly sells hamburgers, even in Piccadilly Circus.
I am not objecting to the priorities of others. I am objecting to the force of government, custom, and exigency limiting consumer sovereignty, then being rationalized as "cultural". In small towns throughout America, shopkeepers in the central district fight the arrival of Wal- Mart on the outskirts, because they know people will go for the bargains. They justify it as a preservation of a way of life, and there is something to that. However, if we always favored the vested interests in order to preserve a way of life, we would still be riding horse- drawn carriages and wearing corsets. Does it matter if the shopkeepers use zoning boards to hurt the Wal- Mart, or persuade a number of people to boycott the store because somehow they would be traitors to a kinder, gentler style of life? The main thing is that they are being swayed, not by perceived interest, but by propaganda on behalf of those who Have, who fear the effects of competition.
Marion Barry won by cultivating support in the 7th and 8th city districts, essentially Anacostia and parts of Northeast, which were overwhelmingly black and poor. He used the race card, and he delivered patronage dollars to those areas. There is always the danger of demogogic elements in politics. In most other districts, he lost or his support was soft, and largely followed a racial breakdown. Unfortunately, when the poor are not paying for their goodies, they don't care much about bang for the buck....... |
