[PEN-L:28254] Re: Re: Re: Re: Something strange about this crisis

[joanna bujes <joanna.bujes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 02:19 PM 07/20/2002 -0700, you wrote:
> So it seems to me that right now we're seeing a massive re-pricing of the
> intellectual assets of lots of firms that have produced too much "stuff"
> because
> some forms of knowledge are so abundant throughout the economy even as
> ignorance
> and waste are even more abundant. At the same time there's a lot of stuff
> going
> on with regards to retheorizing the public-private distinction with regards to
> knowledge/information production and distribution that will make for some very
> interesting politics post Enron if the class unconscious can be tapped. This
> could/would go far beyond the kinds of "right to know" policy regimes that
> activists have fought for and gotten since the 70's.

Hmm. I understand a little more, but it still seems that you're conflating
a lot of stuff. It might be that in the the meltdown of a speculative boom,
everything looks like snake oil, but it's not really. The conflation is
especially intense in your para about branding.

Let me put it another way: in the hi tech company I used to work for, the
highest paid programmer made 200,000/year; the highest paid salesman made
2,000,000. Also, in all the hi-tech companies I've ever worked, for the
expense in R & D (which is especially large in this field) was often less
than the expense of marketing.  Now, if I understand you right, you're
saying that one consequence of the current ruination is that the production
of knowledge/products will be somehow separated from the production of
market share. How exactly can this happen in a capitalist, market-driven
economy?

Joanna