Yeah, there are some "Mom & Pop" stores that are crummy outfits...no doubt. There always were. That doesn't change my main point any. And I appreciate the convenience of, for example, big grocery chains...but I've found some excellent small grocery stores too. I don't have to have it all one way.

Clinton - you wrote: America created this 'naked greed' and now yer afraid because it works better than you thought it would...

Yup. I'm afraid all right. You will presently be afraid too, I can just about guarantee it. No one here has yet seen how far naked greed can push the balloon before it bursts entirely. People are afraid in Argentina and they will be afraid here too.

"Survival of the fittest" is a concept admirably suited to animals, but entirely unfitting for human beings if they mean to build anything worth being called an advanced civilization. I recall kids in my school who believed in survival of the fittest....they were the playground bullies. They were either quite emotionally disturbed or they were scum, and their means of "survival" turned out in the long run to have only the briefest of short-term rewards.

Those who believed in cooperating with others and making a valuable contribution to the whole have done far, far better in life, and it is upon them that the strength of society rests.

- LH