|
|
|
|
|
The greatest, largest bookstore in SF -- and a great resource of technical books -- closes in a month.Even with the many online options for books, I've liked browsing the shelves of Stacey's. I'm big fan of bookstores and am sad to see them go; but not surprised. "We've been losing money for years."
Stacey's is going 30% off for the remainder of its stay (sans periodicals) -- stop by and say good bye. I do have to wonder why Stacey's is survived by the big Chains (Borders) -- and I wouldn't be surprised if they too are not long for the world.
I am sad to see that the Internet has been added to the list of hazards to the independent small business. It is the paradox of new media that now no matter where you live, your small enterprise has to compete not just with your neighbors but with the most efficient machine on the Net for clients. As a Centaurian in the new world order, I do realize that the net is not necessarily always a bridge for the great divide between the haves and have nots. It does give many people and opportunity for quick fame (read: getting kicked in the nuts to a broader audience) and fortune (virtual prostitution), and for us clever folk, an opportunity to trade cleverness for cash. However the vast semi-schooled, hard workin masses remain as screwed as they were before the net came along.
I do not believe its anyone's pesonal obligation to give every individual a decent life regardless of their qualification; and in a nation with free education, I really don't feel too sorry for those who drop out of the easiest school system in the planet and still think the world owes them a living.
But I do believe that it is fair to think that if you stay in school and complete at least a two year degree (the only realistic expection for those in the middle class) you should be eligable for a living wage and a modicum of maintenance from the medical industrial complex.
Yet with every closed small business, the valley between the corporate ready college grads and those they left behind becomes more impossible. This brings us every day closer to a true Caste system; we should, at least, be honest about it. Set an income cutoff for the middle class -- and its getting closer and closer to six figures every day. Give them grey uniforms, public housing and let them police themselves.
The rest of us betans can wear anything we want -- thats what money is for. Within our walled republics we won't have to worry about street vagrants, the howls of the disenfranchised, or medical care. We've earned it.
The ultra wealthy -- say, the 10 million club -- can do anything they want. Why burden them with rules? They are, after all, the ruling class, and they alone can hold public office. If they want justice, they can pay for their own private police, or army, and fight it out amongst themselves.
Past a certain point, if we do not choose between the Brave New World and our 18th century mythology of egalitarianism, destiny will choose for us. And we choose with our dollars. Sure, its easier to one-click Amazon than to visit a real bookstore; its cheaper too. So is Wal-Mart, and so is shrugging our soldiers when the elite divert us into foreign wars in order to retrench their holdings in the third world.
And I am as much a sloth as those I rail against: my life is darn easy, and is so by design. I bought like 10 books online before wandering into Staceys and discovering it was too late to save them. And I patronize many chains over their independant alternatives. But I know that I will miss the alternatives when they are gone, and so will you. And for every small business that we let fail, we create another cautionary tale to discourage the next independant -- certainaly to disourage any one who might invest in one.
So toss your coin carefully. In a concrete world, it is the only way to nurture the future we hope to live in some day.
|
