[lit-ideas] Fw: Re: Virility and Slaughter
- From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2005 19:03:32 -0800 (PST)
The unanswerable question, why war. Frontline last night did a show on credit
cards. I personally pay the entire balance every month, but it was interesting
to note that the banks are a bunch of predators, even declaring that it was
"bad legislation" to let consumers know how long it would take them to pay off
their balances at the monthly minimum of 2% (something like 35 years assuming
no additional purchases). It's part of the war mentality as far as I'm
concerned. Rip someone off just to rip them off, like the pharmaceutical
companies. Like there's not enough money to be made without predatory
practices. Banks cull customers with surgical precision, looking for those who
make minimum payments, the way any predator targets any prey.
I didn't know that MBNA and the other banks make about half of their revenues
on fees, the rest on interest rates of up to 30% after a come-on 0% which they
can change anytime they want to 30%, even for a late payment on someone else's
card years ago. Government agencies don't care. The main oversight agency
didn't care until it became a turf war with the Los Angeles DA's office, after
which they slapped Providian's wrists. Congress is in no hurry to regulate the
banking industry either. I wonder how much funding they do of campaigns,
snicker snicker.
And now, the posts defending the credit card industry's right to charge and the
consumer's God-given right to pay 30% interest plus exorbitant fees.
Andy Amago
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Feb 2, 2005 10:26 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Virility and Slaughter
I don't mean to nit-pick, he said, preparing to
pick several, but the conquest of France in 1940 does not represent the
success of a new paradigm; it represents the conquest of organization
(German) over muddle and timidity (French and British)
____
Robert's right of course. And the last two war-paradigms--nuclear and
information--have never, fortunately, been tested. "Fixed lines opposing
each other" was also a characteristic of the Franco-Prussian War, until
Napoleon III screwed it up.
In my opinion, the only real 20th century innovation is Blitzkrieg. The
Iraq War for example was Blitzkrieg-with-smart-bombs.
So one answer to RK's WWI slaughter question is that so much slaughter
ensued because that's how Europeans fought at the time.
A.A. I may be misunderstanding RK's question, but I think he's asking why
Europeans (I assume among others) had to fight at all. Are we that stupid we
can't find a better way than destroying ourselves? Where does the intelligence
come in then?
Andy Amago
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