[extropy-chat] Jack's right, he's not ready for reality

[Rik van Riel]

On Sat, 19 Nov 2005, John K Clark wrote:

> Boy are you ever right! It's interesting, for some reason people love to
> dwell on the bad things business has done, but if you put all the evil
> business has committed over the last century together in one big lump I
> can't find a word stronger than "naughty" to describe it compared to the
> horrors committed by government.

One thing that happened around 100 years ago in the area where
I was born is that companies paid employees not in money but
in coupons, which could only be spent at (overpriced) company
stores.  This practice has luckily been outlawed in most of
the world by now.

I have read some reports that sweatshops operated by certain
companies, mostly in China, are reinstating a similar policy.
Their "employees" are obliged to live in overcrowded company
"housing" for which they are charged rent, and are overcharged 
for their food.  They need to work one normal western working
day just to break even and end up taking home way less than
minimum wage...

-- 
"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it." - Brian W. Kernighan