h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What is a check? Is it an American spelling for cheque?

How does case six relate to communism in any way?

Maybe all the cheques were for the same amount...

I was wondering about the same as Frankie here, what have communism to do with this? Please don't use communism as a synonym for incompetence, it's very misleading.

Yes, check=cheque.

As for the communism=incompetence, it is my contention that the former breeds the latter. Anywhere you go in a free market system where there is *no* competition for the services you require, you'll find the same level of incompetence and lack of give-a-damn you find discussed above. As I said, god help you if you ever need to go to the immigration office. The DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) is good at making you wait in a line an hour long, then telling you to come back with the proper documentation, because, of course, nobody ever bothered to tell you what you needed. I got to do that once because they only take cash and checks (yes, that word again), and I had foolishly brought along my credit card, expecting that that fine institution had upgraded their technology just like everyone else did 20 years ago.

I could come up with more examples, if you like.

The exception, I think, is in small-town America, where everyone knows everyone. It's a whole lot easier to be nice to people if you know who they are.

That communism=incompetance is a complete misnomer.

The free market breeds beurocracy. You can't blame having to wait for an hour in a queue on communism.

Communism has never really been reached, so most ideas about it are false.

It has been one of capitilism's greatest achievements to have spread such a widespread myth about the failings of communism.

If we haven't yet seen communism, what would a communism be?

My belief is that it hasn't yet been achieved because it cannot be. It's an ideal, like utopia, that will never work in real life, unless you exterminate mankind and start fresh. I welcome any arguments to the contrary.

Bureaucracy is not necessarily a product of a free market... it's more prevalent in government than anywhere else, and government is neither a market, nor free. Waiting in line is not the complaint. Waiting in line to be dismissed is. An institution who actually cared about customer service would have notified its customers ahead of time which documents they were required to bring, and it certainly would have added the cheap technology required to support credit and debit payments.

I share your frustration with government departments. But I don't think you can link its failings with communism.

Communism is an ideal you are right. It is not a form of state or government. Most governments using the name aren't communistic at all. I do believe that a state of communism can be reached though, and that socialisation and democracy with common ownership are the best means of reaching it.

Frankie

Ah, but how do you go about socialising things without allowing them to succumb to the same declining standards that I have discussed? Where is the accountability built in to the system? In a free market, the accountability is lost revenue and lost jobs, and a failure to compete with businesses who *do* care about their customers. Under socialisation, there is no competition, and it becomes just as bad as a monopoly in a free market. The customers become inconveniences to the staff, and are dealt with as such.

Which, incidentally, is *just* like what happens in government services and payroll departments.

Socialism should provide direct power to the people so that the state is not seperated from society but part of it. Accountability can be built into the system.

Competition means low wages, poor working conditions and forces manufacturers to make cheap shortcuts.

Under captilism, companies are responsible to their shareholders, under socialism the people have direct influence.

I hear you are planning on leaving h2g2 by the way. I've read what you've said about the reasons why, but it will be a shame to lose you. The OHGTH2G2C is a big resource so could you pass it on to someone else rather than closing it down? It would be a shame to lose the valuble list. I'm sure the Towers could transfer the editing rights on if you asked them. Just an idea...

"Socialism should provide direct power to the people so that the state is not seperated from society but part of it. Accountability can be built into the system." - How?

"Competition means low wages, poor working conditions and forces manufacturers to make cheap shortcuts." - Labor is also subject to market forces... the more rare labor is, the more wages and benefits it can command. When organized, it can do much, as history has shown. When we allow companies to relocate overseas, where sweatshops are legal, then we undermine labor's bargaining power. However, service industries, which are the most common, simply cannot relocate. As for cheap shortcuts, I've found that those companies who do so often find themselves undermined in the marketplace by companies willing to produce quality. One specific example I can mention is the near death of the American automaking industry in the 80's.

"Under captilism, companies are responsible to their shareholders, under socialism the people have direct influence." - How?

As for the rest, this really isn't the place to discuss it. I'd hate to ruin a perfectly delightful political debate.

I'd just like to add that your tale of woe Colonel, is a carbon copy (Does anyone remember carbon copies - the wee blue sheets of paper that used to make copies of typed/written documents?) of my recent experiences with a State (the Department of Social Security & Local Education Authority) and privatised (my gas & electricity supplier) company.

So, whether an organisation is State or privately run they can each be as frustrating as the other when things go wrong and believe me, they frequently do!

*Bangs her head on her keyboard and throws her reams of letters of complaint across the room*

On occasions, I feel as though I'm taking over where Victor Meldrew left off! (For those not familiar with "One Foot In The Grave", he's a grumpy old character who seems to do nothing but complain about the incompetence he encounters in daily life.)

Gwennie: I offer you the hypothesis that the two experiences, with a public and a private organization, are not that different. Your utilities have a monopoly, because, let's face it, where else are you going to get your gas and power? If a company has a monopoly, then the market for its goods is no more free than it is if it were socialised.

And that, of course, is where California went *horribly* wrong in its plan to privatise power, and why our electric bills have quadrupled (at least mine has) as a result.

Carbon copy: that's that thing you do to send your boss a copy of an email to someone else, right?

The UK utility companies do have lots of competition as a result of being privatised and sold off by the infamous Maggie Thatcher and her ilk. There are so many companies ingratiating themselves to poor unsuspecting consumers that it makes one want to chuck up! I'm starting to dread the knock on the door and now have a similar antipathy towards utility company representatives as I do toward double glazing salesmen!

By the way...I'd like to see an Email covered in Tippex!

(I used to be known as the "Tippex" Queen in the days of manual typewriters and when photocopiers were a new fangled invention!)