John Rider wrote ...

>There's a very funny classic science fiction story by Philip Jose Farmer
>called `Riders of the Purple Wage' in which most people have been replaced
>by automation and are on the dole.

I am reminded of the predictions made in the late forties and fifties ... we
[students]
were told to prepare for lots of leisure ... that the 40 hr workweek would
be reduced
significantly ... and that everyone would be bore stiff with the "excess"
time ...
everyone bought into the leisure industries ... Brunswick [bowling] and
Outboard
Marine [boating/fishing] ...

Automation came ... but we just became the tenders of the machines ... there was
MORE work ... done faster ... and the hours have not been reduced ... and
the profits
have not been distrubuted ... and everything Marx predicted about the octopus
spreading its tentacles to grab everything with its profits has come true ...

When I was young, major corporations accounted for about 45% to 50% of the
typical
household dollar ... and private enterprise was everywhere ... now the major
corporations account for well over 80% of the household dollar ... and it
continues
to rise ... the funeral industry was highlighted on 60 Minutes yesterday ...
a conspiracy?
maybe not ... but it is SOMETHING ... and it is among us as the fungus of
tobacco ...

Greetings of Little River

My very best regards,
Ralph Gainey