Death by Middle Man
My wife and I went to the public library book sale the other week and noticed dozens of people clogging the aisles using Palm Pilots equipped with scanners to scan the bar codes of books. Obviously they are trying to find little gems to sell on eBay at inflated prices. I stopped one guy and he showed me how he would scan a book and his handheld device would tell him if it was valuable or not. We saw another couple work in tandem as the wife cleared every shelf methodically as the husband scanned each and every book right behind her.
As I watched this battle of the book scanners, it hit me: America has become a place for Middle Men to thrive and grow. People, like these scanners, get in between our love for books and inflate the price so they can make a little extra money. So many concepts in our society follow this same pattern, whether it is the housing market or a person just trying to buy a concert ticket, the Middle Man is there to inflate the price so they can get a cut.
This greed leads to inflating prices, such as the current housing market, and it will one day end in doom for us all, but it appears that our society has gained this mindset that we should grab all we can, while we can, and don't bother thinking about what the consequences could be. It is horrifying to see how Middle Men will flock to a newly built condominium and buy the units only to resale them to the average consumer at an inflated price. People have become obsessed with "flipping" houses so they can make a fast buck on the wanting consumer. It has become almost impossible to beat the Middle Man to the punch, and we often find ourselves at their mercy.
Our country has a history of success due to our competitive nature, but it is strange to see that ever since the fall of the U.S.S.R., our uncontested reign as the powerhouse of the world has made America more corrupted and egotistic. The other day Mikael Gorbachev stated his anger in how the United States has handled world situations since becoming the superpower of the Earth and said, "The world is experiencing a period of growing global disarray." This disarray comes directly from our failure to stick to morals and principles we should live by, rather than our descent into letting our greed guide our decisions and attitudes. The seven deadly sins capture the current mode of America today better than the concepts of love and benevolence, which are the ideals we should cherish and live by.
So, as I watched the red lasers scan the books at the library, I saw America in those aisles. A desperate nation trying to get an extra dollar or two by coming between a person and their desires. I saw our future turning into one that resembles a pack of wild dogs fighting over a piece of meat. The countdown clock to our destruction has already begun, and it is only a matter of time until it reaches zero.
As I watched this battle of the book scanners, it hit me: America has become a place for Middle Men to thrive and grow. People, like these scanners, get in between our love for books and inflate the price so they can make a little extra money. So many concepts in our society follow this same pattern, whether it is the housing market or a person just trying to buy a concert ticket, the Middle Man is there to inflate the price so they can get a cut.
This greed leads to inflating prices, such as the current housing market, and it will one day end in doom for us all, but it appears that our society has gained this mindset that we should grab all we can, while we can, and don't bother thinking about what the consequences could be. It is horrifying to see how Middle Men will flock to a newly built condominium and buy the units only to resale them to the average consumer at an inflated price. People have become obsessed with "flipping" houses so they can make a fast buck on the wanting consumer. It has become almost impossible to beat the Middle Man to the punch, and we often find ourselves at their mercy.
Our country has a history of success due to our competitive nature, but it is strange to see that ever since the fall of the U.S.S.R., our uncontested reign as the powerhouse of the world has made America more corrupted and egotistic. The other day Mikael Gorbachev stated his anger in how the United States has handled world situations since becoming the superpower of the Earth and said, "The world is experiencing a period of growing global disarray." This disarray comes directly from our failure to stick to morals and principles we should live by, rather than our descent into letting our greed guide our decisions and attitudes. The seven deadly sins capture the current mode of America today better than the concepts of love and benevolence, which are the ideals we should cherish and live by.
So, as I watched the red lasers scan the books at the library, I saw America in those aisles. A desperate nation trying to get an extra dollar or two by coming between a person and their desires. I saw our future turning into one that resembles a pack of wild dogs fighting over a piece of meat. The countdown clock to our destruction has already begun, and it is only a matter of time until it reaches zero.
posted by goethe3 at 12:46 AM
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