Culture is not about aesthetics. Punk rock is now enforced by law. [Article]

David Gerard educates the enforcers:

Record companies complain the Internet will destroy music. Musicians complain that they can’t make a living any more. The unsympathetic public, feeling the squeeze themselves, tell them to get a proper job.

The problem isn’t piracy — it’s competition.

There is too much music and too many musicians, and the amateurs are often good enough for the public

Can’t compete!

I had a sense of deja-vu this evening.
Very rarely do I make myself comfortable on the couch AND turn on the television.
I did today, & the “news” was on.
A report about how the manufacturing industries in Australia cannot compete with the rest of the world.
The usual suspect, China.
The unusual suspect? India.

What I heard from one of the owners caused me the sense of deja-vu.

“There’s no way we can compete with manufacturing over there. They have the best technology, it keeps their costs down & their quality up. Their government gives the manufacturers subsidies for getting export orders”.

Words I had heard so often growing up in India about the “developed” world.

Seems that the “developed” world has no more room to “develop”. Ironic.