They did it in Argentina, Bolivia, Bulgaria and they will do it here.
Unless we get a balanced budget and huge economic growth.....BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!
I have a question, are 401k's and IRA's in the SWPL site? It sounds very SWPL.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The Captain's Scary Bedtime Story!
I remember as a kid watching Poltergeist and not being able to sleep for about ohhhhhh....7 months.
Scared the living hell out of me.
Since then, about 30 years has passed and I was OK going back to bed without my blue Cookie Monster doll who served as a security blanket.
Until I saw this.
My mom has reliably informed me she threw out my Cookie Monster doll and I am going to have to go to bed on my own and deal with the ungodly nightmares that will no doubt ensue.
Scared the living hell out of me.
Since then, about 30 years has passed and I was OK going back to bed without my blue Cookie Monster doll who served as a security blanket.
Until I saw this.
My mom has reliably informed me she threw out my Cookie Monster doll and I am going to have to go to bed on my own and deal with the ungodly nightmares that will no doubt ensue.
Women Still Like Men
despite the best efforts of feminism.
The question is whether women will wake up and realize that feminism took away the best thing that could ever happen to them, and yes, ladies, that would be a good man.
Of course, I'm sure government checks, cats, day care and a MA in "Public Administration" were worth the trade.
The question is whether women will wake up and realize that feminism took away the best thing that could ever happen to them, and yes, ladies, that would be a good man.
Of course, I'm sure government checks, cats, day care and a MA in "Public Administration" were worth the trade.
I Officially Endorse Welfare
A bit of a philosophical debate I've been having in my little mind for a couple years and that is one of the morality of collecting a government check.
Understand one of the primary reasons I have the energetic, cynical, rage-filled, bombastic personality you've all come to know and love harkens from arguably the darkest days of my life - college.
They were dark because of the sheer amount of work I foisted upon myself, not out of self-discipline, but because if I didn't, I would not have succeeded. I had no help, parental, government, familial, nor friends, and this resulted in me working full time and going to school full time. The years of sleep-deprivation, weight loss (I went from 147 to 118) and mental strain took its toll, but it forged a viciously independent person, incapable of empathy as it was very likely what I went through was worse than whoever was complaining about life being tough. Because of this the single largest thing I prided myself on was my independence. I didn't need my parents, I didn't need a government hand out. I graduated, top of my class, 6 months early, with no debt and cash to spare. Nobody else I knew did that.
However, times have changed and whereas I was very judgmental about people collecting a government check, living off of the government or just not carrying their load, I'm not quite sure about that anymore. ie-the playing field and the rules have become so warped and so illogical, perhaps my old school beliefs are no longer obsolete, but just outright wrong.
For example, a big complaint in the "manosphere" is how traditional roles between men and women have changed. A large part of the men (and the women, I might add) lament this change and pine for the good old days of the 1950's to return. Men in the divorce community are desperate for a traditional woman to love and care for them, just as women howl "where have all the good men gone?" However, the forces that be are making such a return impossible. Plus society has been so brainwashed to ignore factual differences between men and women (going so far as to villainize the mentioning of these differences), deprogramming this communist brainwashing is going to take longer than most people have remaining in life expectancy. Therefore, the healthy or rational choice is not to lament this change, but to accept it as fact (which it is) and change your behavior to take advantage of it. Ergo, the rise of the "pick up artist."
"OK, you ladies want to be everything and do it all and have grrrrrl power and get divorce on a whim. You want to eschew traditional marriage and courting. You want to eschew traditional roles and go on slut walks or be the bread winner and be like guys. You want to jack up my taxes to effectively have the government replace men? Fine, we'll adapt. We'll become Man-Children, we'll never grow up, we'll just play our video games, we won't get married, we'll get vasectomies, we won't trust you, we'll use you, we'll tell you what you want to hear just so we can get what we want."
Is it disagreeable?
My idealistic, idiotic, "white knight," "uber beta," old school, youthful moral self would have said yes.
Is it reality?
My experienced, older and much-wiser self today says "damn right it is."
And guess which one I live in.
Sadly, this same logic has to be applied to today's economic reality as it pertains to self-supportation, independence and relying on the government.
Understand over time, government spending as a percent of GDP has gone from about 5% to 45% today. This includes state, local and federal spending. With government spending accounting for such a large percent of the population, it almost is impossible to live 100% of the time without being reliant upon the government at some point in your life. Additionally, with the private sector, production, wealth, excellence, progress and achievement being punished in the form of regulation, taxation and outright political and social derision, it becomes progressively harder to simply find private-sector employment (let alone a place where you can excel). So whereas our younger, more idealistic selves would be focusing on the shame of collecting a government check or taking a cushy government job, we do our modern day selves a disservice in ignoring the economic realities more or less forcing you to.
Much as I would like to stand here and say collecting a government check is bad, shameful and wrong, and champion the traditional American way of manly independence, if society is so hell bent on socialism and is stupid enough to put a guy like Barack Obama into office, not to mention equally hell bent on punishing individualism, profit and excellence, then in the end we're the suckers for slaving away anyway, trying to find jobs, merely to pay more in taxes for the slackers. And therefore, disagreeable as it may be to collect a government check, and disagreeable as it may be to "neg" women as a player, unfortunately that is the reality society has placed upon us.
Now, does this mean I fully endorse everybody going on the dole and stopping the fight against socialism? No, not at all. However, what I am trying to point out is that during these times of harsh economic conditions it is OK to collect a government check or go on unemployment. It is OK for those of you truly, psychologically independent people who love freedom and liberty to take from the government coffers. Of all people that deserve it, it's those of us who loathe and hate collecting a government check. And therefore you should have no shame in doing so. Better yet, if you can psychologically reprogram yourself, you might even be able to enjoy a much needed respite from a progressively decaying corporate world.
Really try to enjoy the decline.
(On a related note)
Understand one of the primary reasons I have the energetic, cynical, rage-filled, bombastic personality you've all come to know and love harkens from arguably the darkest days of my life - college.
They were dark because of the sheer amount of work I foisted upon myself, not out of self-discipline, but because if I didn't, I would not have succeeded. I had no help, parental, government, familial, nor friends, and this resulted in me working full time and going to school full time. The years of sleep-deprivation, weight loss (I went from 147 to 118) and mental strain took its toll, but it forged a viciously independent person, incapable of empathy as it was very likely what I went through was worse than whoever was complaining about life being tough. Because of this the single largest thing I prided myself on was my independence. I didn't need my parents, I didn't need a government hand out. I graduated, top of my class, 6 months early, with no debt and cash to spare. Nobody else I knew did that.
However, times have changed and whereas I was very judgmental about people collecting a government check, living off of the government or just not carrying their load, I'm not quite sure about that anymore. ie-the playing field and the rules have become so warped and so illogical, perhaps my old school beliefs are no longer obsolete, but just outright wrong.
For example, a big complaint in the "manosphere" is how traditional roles between men and women have changed. A large part of the men (and the women, I might add) lament this change and pine for the good old days of the 1950's to return. Men in the divorce community are desperate for a traditional woman to love and care for them, just as women howl "where have all the good men gone?" However, the forces that be are making such a return impossible. Plus society has been so brainwashed to ignore factual differences between men and women (going so far as to villainize the mentioning of these differences), deprogramming this communist brainwashing is going to take longer than most people have remaining in life expectancy. Therefore, the healthy or rational choice is not to lament this change, but to accept it as fact (which it is) and change your behavior to take advantage of it. Ergo, the rise of the "pick up artist."
"OK, you ladies want to be everything and do it all and have grrrrrl power and get divorce on a whim. You want to eschew traditional marriage and courting. You want to eschew traditional roles and go on slut walks or be the bread winner and be like guys. You want to jack up my taxes to effectively have the government replace men? Fine, we'll adapt. We'll become Man-Children, we'll never grow up, we'll just play our video games, we won't get married, we'll get vasectomies, we won't trust you, we'll use you, we'll tell you what you want to hear just so we can get what we want."
Is it disagreeable?
My idealistic, idiotic, "white knight," "uber beta," old school, youthful moral self would have said yes.
Is it reality?
My experienced, older and much-wiser self today says "damn right it is."
And guess which one I live in.
Sadly, this same logic has to be applied to today's economic reality as it pertains to self-supportation, independence and relying on the government.
Understand over time, government spending as a percent of GDP has gone from about 5% to 45% today. This includes state, local and federal spending. With government spending accounting for such a large percent of the population, it almost is impossible to live 100% of the time without being reliant upon the government at some point in your life. Additionally, with the private sector, production, wealth, excellence, progress and achievement being punished in the form of regulation, taxation and outright political and social derision, it becomes progressively harder to simply find private-sector employment (let alone a place where you can excel). So whereas our younger, more idealistic selves would be focusing on the shame of collecting a government check or taking a cushy government job, we do our modern day selves a disservice in ignoring the economic realities more or less forcing you to.
Much as I would like to stand here and say collecting a government check is bad, shameful and wrong, and champion the traditional American way of manly independence, if society is so hell bent on socialism and is stupid enough to put a guy like Barack Obama into office, not to mention equally hell bent on punishing individualism, profit and excellence, then in the end we're the suckers for slaving away anyway, trying to find jobs, merely to pay more in taxes for the slackers. And therefore, disagreeable as it may be to collect a government check, and disagreeable as it may be to "neg" women as a player, unfortunately that is the reality society has placed upon us.
Now, does this mean I fully endorse everybody going on the dole and stopping the fight against socialism? No, not at all. However, what I am trying to point out is that during these times of harsh economic conditions it is OK to collect a government check or go on unemployment. It is OK for those of you truly, psychologically independent people who love freedom and liberty to take from the government coffers. Of all people that deserve it, it's those of us who loathe and hate collecting a government check. And therefore you should have no shame in doing so. Better yet, if you can psychologically reprogram yourself, you might even be able to enjoy a much needed respite from a progressively decaying corporate world.
Really try to enjoy the decline.
(On a related note)
You Youth Paying Attention?
OK, boys and girls. You paying attention? What can we learn from this valuable experience about employment relations today in corporate America?
The hell if I will ever become a team player.
The hell if I will ever become a team player.
How Gen Y is Completely, Hopelessly, and Totally Screwed Part 8
Part 8 of this series focuses on avoiding Human Resources, progressive credentialism, and other brilliant career advice I give to the little kinder:
Monday, April 23, 2012
MSM Finally Catches Up
Oh, you mean, men account for half the population? I thought we'd just ignore them and focus our efforts on women for 50 years. Oh, wait, you mean there's a backlash? Wow, how interesting. Maybe we should write about it.
Congrats to Dalrock!
Congrats to Dalrock!
Disposable Income - True Measure of the Recession
If you believe that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is why you're on this planet (which I do), then you'll see why the chart below is representing your feelings of this economy probably better than any other chart has. Disposable income has taken its largest hit/decline since the data has been recorded. Even WORSE than the Volcker Recession, which is why (though in terms of GDP this recession is not quite as bad as the 1979-1983 recession) this one feels worse:
But then again, the founding fathers didn't want you to have fun. They wanted you to pay taxes, bloated health insurance premiums, and food, clothing and shelter for economic deadbeats and their children. So you should be happy that chart shows the worst decline in disposable income since the data has been recorded. Money is bad, which is why everybody is altruistic in wanting to take yours from you.
But then again, the founding fathers didn't want you to have fun. They wanted you to pay taxes, bloated health insurance premiums, and food, clothing and shelter for economic deadbeats and their children. So you should be happy that chart shows the worst decline in disposable income since the data has been recorded. Money is bad, which is why everybody is altruistic in wanting to take yours from you.
I Am The Peter Schiff for Gen Y?
I am also 33 years old. Damn, I am WAAAY better than I thought I was:
I too also feel shame for not speaking latin. Watch the whole thing, some freaking hilarious commentary
I too also feel shame for not speaking latin. Watch the whole thing, some freaking hilarious commentary
Sunday, April 22, 2012
He Didn't Do 7 Tours in Vietnam for You to Major in Shit
I won't go into detail (because he never gave me any), but my step-dad, who kicked my and my siblings asses into reality, didn't fight communists scumbags in a jungle in Vietnam and other unnamed SE Asian countries for you to get your freaking craptasic liberal arts degree in "women's studies."
He went there in the vain hopes of providing and protecting your pampered asses a genuine shot at the American dream.
So you can appreciate it when he looks at today's "kids" majoring in "shit" face an underemployment rate of 50% and laughs his freaking ass off.
Don't like it that he's mocking you? Tough, because he didn't take a shrapnel hit, suffer dysentery, become a POW, and earn more medals than he will tell me he's earned (because he's a sneaky bastard and won't show me his files) just so you spoiled suburbanite brats could bitch and whine at the local pompous OWS club. He suffered more than most people did because he cared about an ideal and this country.
I'm drunk now and I ain't got much left to say. Because, well, tell me if you have a better guy than my step dad.
He went there in the vain hopes of providing and protecting your pampered asses a genuine shot at the American dream.
So you can appreciate it when he looks at today's "kids" majoring in "shit" face an underemployment rate of 50% and laughs his freaking ass off.
Don't like it that he's mocking you? Tough, because he didn't take a shrapnel hit, suffer dysentery, become a POW, and earn more medals than he will tell me he's earned (because he's a sneaky bastard and won't show me his files) just so you spoiled suburbanite brats could bitch and whine at the local pompous OWS club. He suffered more than most people did because he cared about an ideal and this country.
I'm drunk now and I ain't got much left to say. Because, well, tell me if you have a better guy than my step dad.
How Boring Teachers Destroy Education
This is a very long piece, but of the many lessons to pull from it, one of the primary ones is that boring teachers should not be allowed to teach.
However, this is what happens when your primary source of labor for teachers are idiotic 23 year olds that managed to get a state certification to teach. NOT those professionals who have been in the field for 25 years who:
1. KNOW what they're talking about.
2. Have a PASSION for what they do and can therefore convey that passion into interest for the little kinder.
3. Are at the forefront of the discipline and can therefore teach it accurately.
4. CAN MAKE IT PRACTICAL to the little kinder.
I didn't realize it till later, but when I was a student the reason I was a "bad" student was because school was SOOOOO BORING! Not because school "is" boring, but because most teachers cannot make their subjects interesting or relevant to the young child.
Then again, education has never been about the chillllldreeeeeennnnn.
Oh, yeah, buy my book!
However, this is what happens when your primary source of labor for teachers are idiotic 23 year olds that managed to get a state certification to teach. NOT those professionals who have been in the field for 25 years who:
1. KNOW what they're talking about.
2. Have a PASSION for what they do and can therefore convey that passion into interest for the little kinder.
3. Are at the forefront of the discipline and can therefore teach it accurately.
4. CAN MAKE IT PRACTICAL to the little kinder.
I didn't realize it till later, but when I was a student the reason I was a "bad" student was because school was SOOOOO BORING! Not because school "is" boring, but because most teachers cannot make their subjects interesting or relevant to the young child.
Then again, education has never been about the chillllldreeeeeennnnn.
Oh, yeah, buy my book!
Saturday, April 21, 2012
A Nice Honor
RooshV of Manosphere fame did a review of "Worthless" over yonder. Kind of humbled actually I would be put up there with "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich."
Remember, if you bought Worthless from Amazon to write a review. They don't hurt book sales and allow the Captain to continue "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Rumpleminze."
In Rocky Mountain National Park this weekend. Postings will be sparse.
Remember, if you bought Worthless from Amazon to write a review. They don't hurt book sales and allow the Captain to continue "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Rumpleminze."
In Rocky Mountain National Park this weekend. Postings will be sparse.
Friday, April 20, 2012
School Is Prison for Intelligent Kids
Schools exist first and foremost to employ people (read teacher union members)
Schools exist second to employ support staff (the billions of other "social workers" "counselors" "assistant reserve vice principle" needed to support said teachers)
Schools exist third to act as effective day care operations for children, the parents of which had and completely underestimated how much it would take to raise a kid and just decided to make the taxpayer pay for baby sitting.
Schools exist lastly to educate those precious little pawns...errr...chilllllldreeeeen.
And so, it is nice to know that somebody came up with the exact same observation I did as a 2nd grader:
Schools are functionally similar to concentration camps for children. The relationship between students and teachers is therefore equivalent to that between concentration camp inmates and their guards and overseers.
Schools exist second to employ support staff (the billions of other "social workers" "counselors" "assistant reserve vice principle" needed to support said teachers)
Schools exist third to act as effective day care operations for children, the parents of which had and completely underestimated how much it would take to raise a kid and just decided to make the taxpayer pay for baby sitting.
Schools exist lastly to educate those precious little pawns...errr...chilllllldreeeeen.
And so, it is nice to know that somebody came up with the exact same observation I did as a 2nd grader:
Schools are functionally similar to concentration camps for children. The relationship between students and teachers is therefore equivalent to that between concentration camp inmates and their guards and overseers.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
A B-17 Over the Ruhr Would Catch Less Flak
than this poor woman. Note it is a WOMAN, not a guy. And it's not me, so don't be firing any flak over here. If you can't handle satire because society has brought you up in a bubble that you have such thin skin coupled with a hyper-victim mentality then go watch The View and they won't pop your precious little bubble. Otherwise if your up for some humor, as well as thought provoking observations, read on.
What Did I Tell You About Horses!?
Evil!!! Pure evil and the SOLE cause of all of our economic problems!!!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Poetic Justice for Book Publishers
The book publishing industry, if you're unaware, is largely centered in New York. It may at one time had desired to seek out the best authors, provide the best books, and even have a nobler aim of contributing to the literary works of humanity, but now if you look at the profiles and bios of most of the people working in the publishing industry it's a bunch of spoiled brat suburb kids with connections, all with degrees in "Creative Writing" and "Philosophy." Like many other institutions in America is has decayed into a nepotistic, cronyistic, rent-seeking shell of its former self. And like all corrupted institutions it no longer serves its purpose.
It is useless.
So it is with a hearty laugh when I see a traditional publisher pout and stamp its feet when technology obsoletes their industry, allowing writers and readers to come to their own terms and prices, cutting out the publishers altogether. I'm specifically talking about Amazon.
Between Amazon's selling platform and it's self-publishing arm Createspace, the entire traditional publishing house industry just received a death sentence. Oh, it may be delayed or postponed, but those two little companies, combined with a dash of internet WILL wipe out the likes of Penguin, Simon and Schuster, Random House and all of their other "New York Publishing Echo Chamber" cousins. What's makes this better, though, is not that it's the technology that is solely to blame, but the arrogance, nepotism and elitism of the book publishing industry.
Like many people before, I had my first book shot down many times. So many times that I was more or less forced to self-publish because the point in time the housing market would crash was rapidly approaching and to avoid becoming a "Me Too" book, I had to get it out there to prove I knew it was going to happen before it did. It was an important lesson in that I realized I spent more time trying to find a publisher (or an agent, HA!) than I did writing the damn book. Adding insult to injury, my book was published in 2008. JUST 6 MONTHS AGO I RECEIVED A REJECTION LETTER FROM ONE OF THOSE PRECIOUS NY PUBLISHING HOUSES! In short, it wasn't that I was getting shot down that irked me (everybody gets shot down). It was realizing this was like applying to Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan. Didn't matter how good you were, you weren't from the right stock of family. You weren't from New York, you weren't "in the biz." And they were SO far from professional they would still send a rejection letter 4 years later after the book was inevitably published.
Why deal with these guys? The industry is dysfunctional.
And that is the whole point right there.
Understand if you are looking to publish, the single worst thing you can do is approach a traditional publisher. You will:
1. Waste more time on finding a publisher willing to accept your book than the time you spent writing it.
2. YOu will not get as favorable terms with them (about 5% commission) as you will online (35%-50% depending on how you structure it).
3. I can only imagine what the editorial process is and what kind of elitist snobs you'd have to deal with on the East Coast.
4. and with the demise of Border's Books (soon to be followed by Barnes and Noble!), you will face a dwindling market.
There's NO reason to go with a traditional publisher. If anything, write your own books and one may "pick you up," but I'd say in 20 years time, you won't even want to be picked up by one of them. If you are that popular and on their radar screen, you probably already have a decent following and therefore market to sell your book to.
But what is particularly precious about watching the publishing industry go down the toilet is the attitude within the industry. It's like watching an aging socialite who was used to being the center of attention being upstaged by a younger hotter socialite. Nobody is interested in her anymore, she's outdated and obsolete. But worse for the aged socialite, everybody remembers what an arrogant, condescending snob she used to be, and therefore have a personal interest in seeing her suffer.
But, like the aging socialite, what I particularly love about the publishing industry's attitude is how they're so arrogant, they're delusional. Borderline entitled. Randall White, EDC's CEO has a quote that says it all:
"Amazon is squeezing everyone out of business,” said Randall White, EDC’s chief executive. “I don’t like that. They’re a predator. We’re better off without them.”
No Randy, WE (the people who buy books) are better off without YOU. Amazon is merely a technological advance that, like the car wiping out horses, is wiping out you and the rest of your pompous, obsoleted asses. You bitching and whining about a technological advance lowering prices for everybody in the WORLD, thereby increasing their standards of living, just shows you'd rather stop general progress and advancement in the ENTIRE economy so you can keep your precious little job. ie- you're more important than everybody else in the world.
The article goes on to further prove the entitlement mentality (and it should be no shocker this comes from a New York Times writer):
*critics say* When traditional publishers, booksellers and wholesalers are destroyed, these opponents say, Amazon will be left with a monopoly that will be detrimental to the larger health of the culture.
Wait, wait, wait. Let me get this right.
Lower priced books
combined with
MORE books because people can now self-publish
results in something
detrimental to the larger health of the culture????
I mean, latte-sipping, self-absorbed, east coasters under the employ of their dad's publishing house might be delusional enough to fall for this, but NOBODY ELSE WILL! Yes, I can't wait for another drama-book about some 30 something female professional living in New York. We don't have enough of those, right? Who wants to read about, say, the education bubble, or a comic book, or the witty satire of Sinfest. No, please write "Eat Pray Love 2." And NEVER publish any of those other guys!
Additionally, by default, you're suggesting the rest of the country is supposed to just give up on a cheaper and MUCH WIDER selection of books all so you guys can keep your jobs? No doubt you all hate Wal-Mart too for their everyday low prices that has done more to eliminate poverty and improve people's standards of living? What evil entities Amazon and Wal-Mart are!
Well, pout, scream and stamp your little feet. Throw a tantrum or a hissy-fit. Do whatever it is your natural reaction tells you to do, in the end it won't matter. Publishers are going bye bye. If you were nice, professional and not elitists, you may have been able to extend the life of the industry by a couple decades, but now, people are cheering for the death of your industry.
Enjoy the decline! (and I can't mean that enough ;)
It is useless.
So it is with a hearty laugh when I see a traditional publisher pout and stamp its feet when technology obsoletes their industry, allowing writers and readers to come to their own terms and prices, cutting out the publishers altogether. I'm specifically talking about Amazon.
Between Amazon's selling platform and it's self-publishing arm Createspace, the entire traditional publishing house industry just received a death sentence. Oh, it may be delayed or postponed, but those two little companies, combined with a dash of internet WILL wipe out the likes of Penguin, Simon and Schuster, Random House and all of their other "New York Publishing Echo Chamber" cousins. What's makes this better, though, is not that it's the technology that is solely to blame, but the arrogance, nepotism and elitism of the book publishing industry.
Like many people before, I had my first book shot down many times. So many times that I was more or less forced to self-publish because the point in time the housing market would crash was rapidly approaching and to avoid becoming a "Me Too" book, I had to get it out there to prove I knew it was going to happen before it did. It was an important lesson in that I realized I spent more time trying to find a publisher (or an agent, HA!) than I did writing the damn book. Adding insult to injury, my book was published in 2008. JUST 6 MONTHS AGO I RECEIVED A REJECTION LETTER FROM ONE OF THOSE PRECIOUS NY PUBLISHING HOUSES! In short, it wasn't that I was getting shot down that irked me (everybody gets shot down). It was realizing this was like applying to Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan. Didn't matter how good you were, you weren't from the right stock of family. You weren't from New York, you weren't "in the biz." And they were SO far from professional they would still send a rejection letter 4 years later after the book was inevitably published.
Why deal with these guys? The industry is dysfunctional.
And that is the whole point right there.
Understand if you are looking to publish, the single worst thing you can do is approach a traditional publisher. You will:
1. Waste more time on finding a publisher willing to accept your book than the time you spent writing it.
2. YOu will not get as favorable terms with them (about 5% commission) as you will online (35%-50% depending on how you structure it).
3. I can only imagine what the editorial process is and what kind of elitist snobs you'd have to deal with on the East Coast.
4. and with the demise of Border's Books (soon to be followed by Barnes and Noble!), you will face a dwindling market.
There's NO reason to go with a traditional publisher. If anything, write your own books and one may "pick you up," but I'd say in 20 years time, you won't even want to be picked up by one of them. If you are that popular and on their radar screen, you probably already have a decent following and therefore market to sell your book to.
But what is particularly precious about watching the publishing industry go down the toilet is the attitude within the industry. It's like watching an aging socialite who was used to being the center of attention being upstaged by a younger hotter socialite. Nobody is interested in her anymore, she's outdated and obsolete. But worse for the aged socialite, everybody remembers what an arrogant, condescending snob she used to be, and therefore have a personal interest in seeing her suffer.
But, like the aging socialite, what I particularly love about the publishing industry's attitude is how they're so arrogant, they're delusional. Borderline entitled. Randall White, EDC's CEO has a quote that says it all:
"Amazon is squeezing everyone out of business,” said Randall White, EDC’s chief executive. “I don’t like that. They’re a predator. We’re better off without them.”
No Randy, WE (the people who buy books) are better off without YOU. Amazon is merely a technological advance that, like the car wiping out horses, is wiping out you and the rest of your pompous, obsoleted asses. You bitching and whining about a technological advance lowering prices for everybody in the WORLD, thereby increasing their standards of living, just shows you'd rather stop general progress and advancement in the ENTIRE economy so you can keep your precious little job. ie- you're more important than everybody else in the world.
The article goes on to further prove the entitlement mentality (and it should be no shocker this comes from a New York Times writer):
*critics say* When traditional publishers, booksellers and wholesalers are destroyed, these opponents say, Amazon will be left with a monopoly that will be detrimental to the larger health of the culture.
Wait, wait, wait. Let me get this right.
Lower priced books
combined with
MORE books because people can now self-publish
results in something
detrimental to the larger health of the culture????
I mean, latte-sipping, self-absorbed, east coasters under the employ of their dad's publishing house might be delusional enough to fall for this, but NOBODY ELSE WILL! Yes, I can't wait for another drama-book about some 30 something female professional living in New York. We don't have enough of those, right? Who wants to read about, say, the education bubble, or a comic book, or the witty satire of Sinfest. No, please write "Eat Pray Love 2." And NEVER publish any of those other guys!
Additionally, by default, you're suggesting the rest of the country is supposed to just give up on a cheaper and MUCH WIDER selection of books all so you guys can keep your jobs? No doubt you all hate Wal-Mart too for their everyday low prices that has done more to eliminate poverty and improve people's standards of living? What evil entities Amazon and Wal-Mart are!
Well, pout, scream and stamp your little feet. Throw a tantrum or a hissy-fit. Do whatever it is your natural reaction tells you to do, in the end it won't matter. Publishers are going bye bye. If you were nice, professional and not elitists, you may have been able to extend the life of the industry by a couple decades, but now, people are cheering for the death of your industry.
Enjoy the decline! (and I can't mean that enough ;)
Graffiti, Men Going Galt and More!
On this episode of Cappy Cap Linkage!
Hipsters plagiarizing graffiti.
In addition to guns, bullets, and a crate of Rumpleminze (not to be drunken, drank? whatever the correct verb is), I also purchased about $500 in stamps. Looks like it's not a bad idea.
Help Dr. Helen come up with ways men have "gone Galt." Off hand I think of motorcycles, vasectomies, never marrying, outsourcing to foreign women, hanging out with friends, drinking, playing X-Box, watching sports, working less, minimalizing their expenses, minimalizing their assets, and just becoming players with no intention to commit.
You know how I like to go fossil hunting. You also know my dad was a pastor. Funny how he never talks to me about my fossil collection, where they came from and why I find inordinate amounts of ammonites (sea creatures from long ago) in high elevations. So large and so many that they couldn't have all grown in 40 days and 40 nights. Still, I wonder why we never talk about fossils.
We don't need no stiiiiiinking fathers!
A lengthy, thorough and thoughtful post on infidelity in the church. Thankfully that's not a problem because Jesus will forgive you, and btw, turn the other cheek. Joking aside, a serious post. I just have to get my PK jabs in there.
I just called it "changing the topic," but leftists do it when they're about to lose the argument.
Hipsters plagiarizing graffiti.
In addition to guns, bullets, and a crate of Rumpleminze (not to be drunken, drank? whatever the correct verb is), I also purchased about $500 in stamps. Looks like it's not a bad idea.
Help Dr. Helen come up with ways men have "gone Galt." Off hand I think of motorcycles, vasectomies, never marrying, outsourcing to foreign women, hanging out with friends, drinking, playing X-Box, watching sports, working less, minimalizing their expenses, minimalizing their assets, and just becoming players with no intention to commit.
You know how I like to go fossil hunting. You also know my dad was a pastor. Funny how he never talks to me about my fossil collection, where they came from and why I find inordinate amounts of ammonites (sea creatures from long ago) in high elevations. So large and so many that they couldn't have all grown in 40 days and 40 nights. Still, I wonder why we never talk about fossils.
We don't need no stiiiiiinking fathers!
A lengthy, thorough and thoughtful post on infidelity in the church. Thankfully that's not a problem because Jesus will forgive you, and btw, turn the other cheek. Joking aside, a serious post. I just have to get my PK jabs in there.
I just called it "changing the topic," but leftists do it when they're about to lose the argument.
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