> Dan, are capitalists trying to create wealth and the conservatives
> trying to use their wealth to make money by funding the capitalists
> the stupid and cruel ones you speak of? Isn't this just another take
> on the class war fare theme?
No. I wouldn't dream of trying to waste peoples' time with some kind of
comic-book political diatribe.
My use of "stupid", "cruel" and "smart" is based on years of commercial
experience, and refers to individuals in management positions, in
particular those who make buying decisions and control implementation
projects for business automation.
A great many of those people are "stupid" in the sense that they
willfully exclude important factors in making automation decisions.
Typically they have reduced their mental model of the business to a an
accountant's view, with the assumption that ease of measurement is
proportional to importance. They are the opposite of systems thinkers --
and they are proud of it, which is why I call them "stupid" (although
this might be cruel of me).
They are repeatedly surprised that actual costs of their machines wind up
a lot higher than expected, while projected headcount reductions don't
materialize because the net effect of the machine on the organisation was
a lot less useful than the salesman had promised.
Or worse, having already sacked the people, they wind up hiring them back
or obtaining inferior replacements once the shortfalls of the automation
plan become apparent. Or worse yet, they can't afford -- or are too
embarrassed -- to maintain appropriate staffing levels after automation,
and the whole business suffers.
Cruelty is an added dimension that some people bring to the table. There
is definitely a category of manager who wants to be sure that an
automation project will cause significant suffering for the "enemy" --
this could be the union or just as easily a rival on the board of
directors. Nothing to do with Marx, maybe something to do with Freud.
-- Dan Warfield +44 171 437 4337 -office dwarfield@cix.compulink.co.uk 11 Golden Square +44 171 494 1168 - fax danny@well.sf.ca.us London W1R 3AF +44 860 887448 -mobile 72707.72@compuserve.com England